The Belgian Essays: A Critical Edition 9780300162226

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The Belgian Essays

The Pensionnat Heger in the later nineteenth century. Le Soir, Brussels.

The Belgian Essays

Charlotte Bronte and Emily Bronte Edited and translated by Sue Lonoff

A Critical Edition

YALE UNIVERSITY PRESS

NEW HAVEN AND LONDON

Copyright© 1996 by Yale University. All rights reserved. This book may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, including illustrations, in any form (beyond that copying permitted by Sections 107 and 108 of the U.S. Copyright Law and except by reviewers for the public press), without written permission from the publishers. Designed by Rebecca Gibb. Set in Times Roman type by The Composing Room of Michigan, Inc., Grand Rapids, Michigan Printed in the United States of America by BookCrafters, Inc., Chelsea, Michigan Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Bronte, Charlotte,1816--1855. The Belgian essays I Charlotte Bronte and Emily Bronte: edited and translated by Sue Lonoff. p. em. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-300-06489-6 (cloth: alk. paper) 1. Bronte, Charlotte,1816--1855-Translations into English. 2. Bronte, Emily, 1818-1848-Translations into English. 3. College prose, French-Translation into English. I. Bronte, Emily, 1818-1848. II. Lonoff de Cuevas, Sue. III. Title. PR4165.E54B76 1996 844'.708-dc20

95-48323 CIP

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. The paper in this book meets the guidelines for permanence and durability of the Committee on Production Guidelines for Book Longevity of the Council on Library Resources. 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

For John

Contents

List of Illustrations xi Preface xii Acknowledgments xviii Introduction xxi Chronology lxxvii Editorial Method lxxxvii

Devoirs (Essays) of 1842 1 Sacrifice of an Indian Widow Sacrifice d'une veuve Indienne (ca) 2 Comments 8 2 The Sick Young Girl La jeune Fille malade 12 with dictee The Poor Girl La Pauvre Fille (CB) Comments 20

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3 Evening Prayer in a Camp La Priere du Soir dans un camp 24 with dictee Evening Prayer on Board a Ship Priere du Soir a bord d'u[n] vaisseau (ca) 28 Comments 32

4 The Nest Le Nid (cs)(uncorrected and corrected) 36 Comments 44 5 The Immensity of God L'Immensite de Dieu (cs) 48 Comments 52 6 The Cat Le Chat (EB) 56 with two fragments, Plea for Cats Plaidoyer pour les chats and The Two Dogs Les deux chiens (CB) 60 Comments 64 7 TheSiegeofOudenarde LeSieged'Oudenarde(EB) 68 8 The Siege of Oudenarde Le siege d'Oudenarde (CB) 72 Comments (7 and 8) 76 9 Anne Askew: Imitation Anne Askew: Imitation (CB) 80 with dictee Eudorus Eudore (cs) 86 Comments 90 10 Portrait: King Harold before the Battle of Hastings Portrait: Le Roi Harold avant Ia Bataille de Hastings (EB) (uncorrected and corrected) 96 Portrait: Harold on the Eve of the Battle of Hastings Portrait: Harold Ia veille de Ia Bataille de Hastings (Heger's version) 104 with dictee Mirabeau on the Tribune Mirabeau aIa Tribune (cs) 108 Comments 112 11 Portrait: Peter the Hermit Portrait: Pierre l'Ermite 118 Imitation: Portrait of Peter the Hermit Imitation: Portrait de Pierre I' Ermite (CB) 126 with dictee The Capture of Jerusalem by the Crusaders Prise de

Jerusalem par les croises (CB) 132 Comments 134 12 Letter (Madam) Lettre (Madame) (EB) (corrected and uncorrected) 140 13 Letter of invitation to a Clergyman Lettre d'invitation aun Ecclesiastique (cs) 144 Comments {12 and 13) 148

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14 Letter (My dear Mama) Lettre (Ma chere Maman) (EB) (uncorrected and corrected) 150 Comments

154

15 Filial Love L'Amour Filial (EB) 156 Comments 160 16

Letter from one brother to another Lettre d'un frere aun frere (EB) (uncorrected and corrected) 164 Comments 172

17 The Butterfly Le Pap ilion (EB) 176 18 The Caterpillar La Chenille (cB) 180 Comments (17 and 18) 186 19 The Aim of Life Le But de Ia Vie (CB) (uncorrected and corrected) 194 Comments 200 20 Human Justice La Justice humaine (cB) (corrected and uncorrected) 204 Comments 212 21 The Palace of Death Le Palais de Ia Mort (CB) 216 22 The Palace of Death Le Palais de Ia Mort (EB) 224 Comments (21 and 22) 232

Devoirs (Essays) of 1843 23 The Fall of the Leaves La Chute des Feuilles (CB) 240 with dictee The Fall of the Leaves La chute des Feuilles (CB) 250 Comments 254 24 Letter(MyDearJane) Lettre(MachereJane)(cs) 260 Comments 266 25 The Death of Napoleon La Mort de Napoleon (cs) (uncorrected and corrected) 270 On the Death of Napoleon Sur Ia mort de Napoleon (Heger's version) 295 Comments 302

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26 The Death of Moses La Mort de Moise 310 with Notes on the Death of Moses Notes sur La Mort de

Moise (cs) 324 Comments

328

27 Athens Saved by Poetry Athenes sauvee par Ia Poesie (cs) 334 Comments

352

28 Letter from a Poor Painter to a Great Lord Lettre d'un pauvre

Peintre aun grand Seigneur (CB) 358 Comments 368

Appendix: List of Manuscript Locations Notes

375

Bibliography 453 Index

461

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371

Illustrations

Frontispiece. The Pensionnat Heger in the later nineteenth century. Le Soir, Brussels. 1. First page of Charlotte Bronte's "The Death of Napoleon." The Bronte Society. XC 2. Title page from an anthology Heger used in his classes that illustrates "Evening Prayer on Board a Ship"; he later gave Charlotte this book. Harvard College Library. 23 3. Charlotte Bronte, unfinished pencil drawing of a picturesque landscape, probably done in Brussels in 1842. Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center, University of Texas at Austin. 47 4. First page of Emily Bronte's "Letter from one brother to another." Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center, University of Texas at Austin. 163 5. First page of Charlotte Bronte's "The Aim of Life." Berg Collection. 193 6. "Good-bye," Charlotte Bronte's cartoon from a letter of March 6, 1843. Standing on the continent, she waves across the channel to Ellen Nussey, who is with a suitor. The Bronte Society. 238 7. Charlotte Bronte's sketch "Abercrombie." The Bronte Society.

259

8. The medallion Charlotte Bronte drew at the end of her revision of "Athens Saved by Poetry," a copy probably made for Heger. The Pierpont Morgan Library. 333

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Preface

It's in all the Bronte biographies. On February 15, 1842, at the ages of twenty-five and twenty-three, Charlotte and Emily Bronte became students at the Pensionnat Heger in Brussels. For the next nine months they worked unrelentingly, until their aunt's death took them back to Haworth. In January, Charlotte went to Brussels for a second year, ostensibly to teach while she continued her studies, actually to be near Constantin Heger, the professor she would later call her "master" and the husband of the pensionnat's directrice. She left again on New Year's Day of 1844, never to return to the Continent. But memories of her foreign venture stayed with her. Over time she would fix on them, heighten them, build on them, and finally rewrite them in her novels. Yet despite the hundreds of published descriptions of the Pensionnat Heger and the life the sisters led there, this remains a chapter with many pages missing. Only three years later, in 1847, the Brontes emerged as major Victorian authors. How did those months in Brussels conduce to that emergence? Beyond the often-analyzed effects of Charlotte's passion, could there have been a writer's connection? "They wanted learning. They came for learning. They would learn," Elizabeth Gaskell wrote later. 1 The most direct proofs of that learning

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are their devoirs, the essays that they wrote in response to Constantin Heger's instructions. "Homework" is one translation of devoir, and if the Brontes had been ordinary schoolgirls set to doing grammar drills and pattern-book assignments, their homework might have vanished with no loss. But they came to the pensionnat as prolific writers with years of juvenilia behind them. They encountered a professor who also broke the mold, a man whose energy to teach matched theirs to learn. So despite the evident restrictions-composing under orders and in a foreign language-they wrote some extraordinary essays. Heger soon recognized their talent; already in the habit of saving student samples, he preserved a number of their devoirs. Charlotte too tended to preserve what she had written, so much of her Brussels work returned with her to Haworth, where it stayed until after her death. Both collections gradually thinned out. Heger gave manuscripts to eager friends and students;2 Charlotte's, which became her husband's property, were bought by a dealer who scattered them. 3 Still, by the early 1980s thirty compositions were on record-nine by Emily, the rest by Charlotte-together with second drafts, fragments, and dictations that often have a bearing on the texts. 4 This material remains little known and less examined. 1\velve of Charlotte's devoirs have been published, four of them solely in translation; this count includes the two that Gaskell printed in 1857. Emily's devoirs are more accessible; eight have been printed, two bilingually, the rest in French or in English translation. Of the published versions by either sister, only seven include evidence of Heger's responses, though in manuscript the pages may be thick with them. Scholarly studies are similarly spotty, perhaps two dozen articles or chapters over the past century,5 and of all the biographies written since Gaskell's, only the most recent, Juliet Barker's, examines the devoirs as an integral part of the sisters' experience in Brussels.6 Why have these texts received so little attention, unlike the least scrap of their fiction, poems, and letters?7 Perhaps because, as literature, they seem so insignificant, so foreign to the Brontes' English writings. Perhaps because their language makes them marginal. Perhaps because the manuscripts look so unpromising: mold-flecked pages, often scored with corrections, now gathered in archives on two continents. Typically,

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the Brontes wrote on paper from their notebooks, which they ruled and sometimes bound with cotton thread. The author's name went at the top left, the date at top right; a centered title followed, with a double line beneath it, and then the composition in a clear and careful script, a receptor for far less tidy comments. Even now, rebound in leather or preserved in mats and folders, they retain an inescapable identity as homework, themes written by two students learning French. But readers of the devoirs should not be misled by their format or their obvious objectives. Examining them closely leads to recognitionthese writings were pivotal for both the Bronte sisters-and to unpredictable discoveries. Little enough remains in any case by Emily: the poems, the single novel, the diary papers, fragments. Even if she wrote reluctantly and sparely, nine essays make a difference to the record. Charlotte's devoirs tell a more complex story. They offer vital clues to her growth as a writer, evidence and signals of transition. They give evidence, as well, of her exposure to new concepts, to critical analysis, to literature. Her two terms in Brussels engendered major changes in the ways she thought about composing. The devoirs exemplify some of those changes. Others would germinate years later in Haworth, coming to fruition in the plots of her novels, as well as in their style and form and language. At the pensionnat, the Brontes kept to themselves. As English Protestants, provincial and averaged, they would have been outsiders in any case. For the purposes of learning, they could manage to comply; Charlotte even found herself submitting happily. But their more profound response to this new culture was entrenchment: in work, in their beliefs, and in their difference. Nevertheless, it is crucial to remember that they did not live or work in a vacuum. Insular they may have been, but never inattentive. As children they had learned to soak up information and recycle it into their plays. Their fantasies were fed by facts, political, historical, religious, literary, geographic. Living in Brussels and studying under Heger exposed them to new authors, new conditions for writing, and a teacher who urged them to experiment. Charlotte took to Heger's system, thriving intellectually even when her optimism soured. Emily did not, but she accepted necessity and wrote her resistance as well as her ideas into the papers he assigned.

It follows that the devoirs are rarely simple documents, even when

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they look brief and obvious. They refer to sources in French and English, some apparent, others little known or subtle. They link to other Bronte writings, earlier and later, again in ways both plain and less detectable. Connections emerge too among the devoirs themselves, especially when their sources are traced and identified, and when they are read as related sets or as pairs responding to the same assignment. Heger's comments interject questions and suggestions as well as immediate revisions; they often prompt Charlotte to read and think further, with results that emerge in later essays. In sum, the devoirs are a network of resources for anyone concerned with the Brontes. But to be explored, they must be accurately published, translated, and set within their multiple contexts. In this volume, I have tried to do those things. My first aim was to make all the known texts available, in complete and readable transcriptions. Uncorrected devoirs posed few legibility problems since, aside from two rough drafts by Charlotte, they are compositions written to be read by a foreigner, not minuscule juvenilia manuscripts. But those that Heger laced and interlaced with corrections could not be transcribed legibly without some compromises; manuscript notes explain the changes. In a few cases, they are so overwritten that I also provide an unmarked version. Accurate transcription was also complicated by Heger's handwriting, his unexplained abbreviations, his intricate insertions, and his marking symbols-an array of lines, slashes, and carets. But whatever the problems entailed in reproduction, to decipher what he wrote is to gain access to the dialogue between an exceptional teacher and his students and to see how all three went about their work. Charlotte's dictees further illuminate that process; they too are reprinted here whenever they are clearly a source for her devoirs or Emily's. My second aim, accurate translation of the devoirs, posed literary rather than technical questions. These are essays written in far from perfect French by authors who, in English, are extraordinary stylists. To what extent should their roughness be preserved? In Emily's case, a literal translation can make the sense of the original clearer because she often stuck to English rather than French syntax and thought of English rather than French idioms. In Charlotte's case, the question is tougher. More advanced in French, more attuned to its cadences, and keener to show

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Heger what she was learning, she struggled to make her devoirs eloquent. Strict translation safeguards the record of her struggles and reveals her striking progress over time. It also enables English readers to understand the purposes of Heger's interventions. But ambition sometimes led her into awkward constructions that would not only jar if they were literally translated but might also belie what she intended. To try second-guessing her intentions, however, by putting her French into Brontean English could lead to distortion-and parody. My solution was to do modern versions that stay as close to the originals as possible without emphasizing the errors. They can be checked against the typescripts in French that appear on facing pages. The third and final aim of this edition, to set the devoirs in their multiple contexts, entailed more decisions than the others. Which contexts, in the first place, should be explicated? The site, rooms, furniture, and garden of the pensionnat have been described by dozens of Bronte biographers, from Gaskell through Rebecca Fraser. Accounts of Heger's dramatic personality and its effects on one susceptible student have multiplied since Charlotte wrote Villette. But if attention has been lavished on the man and the setting, much less has been paid to the kinds of instruction the Brontes received as Heger's students or to the influence, immediate and long-term, that he exerted over them as writers. Gaskell's interview with him remains the primary account, but she met him fourteen years after Charlotte's departure, a fact that should prompt at least tentative questions about the exactness of his memories. Further accounts of the Brontes and the Hegers have been given by younger and later students, but few connections have been drawn between these memoirs and the essays the sisters produced. The books Heger consulted for his lectures and dictees are a more specific source of information; Enid Duthie and David H. Musselwhite have checked into some of them, but many more remain to be traced. Then (as I have said) there are the clues within the devoirs, relationships among texts, and the retrospective hints that Charlotte's four novels provide. Finally, these writings have to be considered in the context of the sisters' lives and works. Deciding where and how to present this information was a furthereditorial issue. A chronology, notes, and comments on each devoir-or, in four cases, on corresponding pairs-were basic requirements for a schol-

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arly edition of texts as little studied as these. In coming to decisions I was guided by two images. The first one was of readers asking, Why do the devoirs matter? How did writing them affect the two Brontes? What stories lie behind them? And what about Heger? In answer, I wrote the introduction. The second image was of a scholar-archaeologist, excavating in libraries rather than digs, who would not only have to piece the fragments together but also explain what the evidence signified and how it might amplify a reader's understanding of individual devoirs and their ambience. That image guided me in the construction of the comments. The more exhaustive apparatus of scholarship has been relegated to the back of the book, where it appears in notes and an appendix. Gaps remain in the record, inevitably. Heger's library is gone, as are his notes (if he kept them), and so are any notes and dictees of Emily's. Two of Charlotte's devoirs known earlier in this century, "L'Ingratitude" and "Lettre d'un Missionaire, Sierre-Leone, Afrique," have disappeared. And the number of devoirs on record almost certainly falls short of the number they produced. According to the dates on the manuscripts, for instance, a month elapsed between Charlotte's first and second devoirs; then, within the space of two weeks, she did three more. A creative writer might compose in fits and starts, but in a well-regulated school like the pensionnat, assignments would have fallen due more steadily. Perhaps other devoirs will surface if the· known texts attract more attention. This edition is a step in that direction.

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Acknowledgments

This edition was begun at the suggestion of Juliet R. W. Barker, whose help has continued through the years. It was prepared with the assistance of Anna Marshall Shields and Sabine Mourlon-Beernaert, who helped me to decipher, transcribe, edit, and proofread the devoirs. Shelley Salamensky and Monique Tyc also assisted in the editing. Grants from the Derek Bok Center, Harvard University, made this assistance possible and James D. Wilkinson, the center's director, provided additional help. The Hegers' great-great-great grandson, Fran~ois Fierens, gave me generous access to his family's archives and to material not previously published. I am indebted as well to the books and correspondence of Christine Alexander and Enid Duthie; to Linda Simon, for her advice on the introduction; to Janet Larson, for her research leads; to Anne Anninger, for providing definitions of the Bronte sisters' lettering; to Timothy Boyd, for information on classical allusions; to Janet Gezari, for her helpful review of the manuscript; and to Jane Sellars for her encouragement. I gratefully acknowledge permission to reproduce the devoirs from the Brotherton Collection, Leeds University Library (and to Christopher Sheppard for his help); the Bronte Parsonage Museum (and to Kathryn White, Ann Dinsdale and Sally Johnson for their help); the British

xviii

Library; Fran~Yois Fierens; the Friends Historical Library of Swarthmore College; the Huntington Library; the Henry W. and Albert A. Berg Collection, The New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations; the Parrish Collection, Princeton University Library; the Robert H. Taylor Collection, Princeton University Library; the John Rylands University Library of Manchester; and the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center, the University of Texas at Austin. The collections of the Widener, Andover, and Houghton Libraries at Harvard made it possible to read many sources in editions available to Heger. I am also grateful to librarians at the Bibliotheque Royale Albert Jer, Brussels, and to Ruth Rogers and Marilyn Hatch, Special Collections, Margaret Clapp Library, Wellesley College. The editing and production of this book was made possible by Ellen Graham, Jonathan Brent, Cynthia Wells, Lawrence Kenney, Rebecca Gibb, and Susan Abel ofthe Yale University Press and by Sarah St. Onge, an extraordinary manuscript editor. Transcription of the devoirs in WordPerfect 5.1 was facilitated by that company's support staff, which spent patient hours answering my questions. Finally, this edition owes its existence to John de Cuevas, who revised translations and read and reread the manuscript with exhaustless patience.

Acknowledgments

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L'instituteur doit activer Ia pensee de son eleve, developper son intelligence, rectifier son jugement, le munir de bans principes, et le mettre a meme des precieux materiaux qui lui fournissent les annales de !'esprit humain; c'est ensuite al'eleve abatir !'edifice. Au sortir de ses classes, un bon eleve a appris aapprendre; le professeur a developpe les forces de son intelligence en les exer~ant et en les dirigeant; c'est maintenant a lui de les appliquer. The instructor must activate the thinking of his student, develop his intelligence, rectify his judgment, arm him with good principles, and set before him those precious materials that provide him with the record of the human spirit; after that, it is up to the student to build the edifice. On leaving his classes, a good student has learned how to learn; the professor has developed the powers of his intelligence in exercising and directing them; it is now up to him to apply them. -from the prospectus of the Athenee Royal (1844)

Introduction

The Two Sisters In 1839 Charlotte Bronte wrote "The Last of Angria," announcing her intention to abandon the fervid plots and settings of her youthful romances. Though post-Angrian material continued to trickle out through the end of 1840, she ended the saga after that year or destroyed whatever she attempted. When she resumed writing in 1846 or began once again to retain her manuscripts, her work was of a different order: far more realistic, limited, and local-distinctive in its style, but not inflated. It has been argued, with justice, that Charlotte's best work transposes

the romantic intensity of the juvenilia to a context that is psychologically and factually credible. 1 Nonetheless, a gap remains. The novels stand apart from her earlier stories, and they are unquestionably better. How did she effect the transformation? What happened to the writer in that interval? If I specify "writer," it is because the normal question-what happened to her-has been answered. Two months short of her twenty-sixth birthday, hungry for experience and possibly for romance, Charlotte encountered thirty-two-year-old Constantin Georges Romain Heger. At first he struck her as absurdly temperamental, a domineering, darkbrowed little man. But his potent intelligence and passion for literature

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aroused her even as she mocked him. Respect turned into homage and then into obsession. She had to return for a second year in Brussels, though she seems to have denied the kind of feeling that prompted her, at least while she remained within the pensionnat. But Zoe Parent-Heger (five years older than her husband) evidently understood the situation and took discreet measures to control it. Charlotte found herself increasingly cut off from her professor, kept at a distance from the unsuspecting husband by the wife she would resent for a lifetime. Her bitter isolation was further reinforced by her contempt for Catholics and Belgians. After months of indecision and deepening depression, she resolved to go home to Haworth Parsonage. More agony followed; she passed two years in which, she said, her happiness and peace of mind abandoned her. She suffered from confinement, from a fear of going blind, from family problems, from emotional privation. Ultimately, she came to terms with her experience and sublimated feeling into fiction. That, at least, is the prevailing explanation. 2 But redirected passion and hard-won maturity fall short as explanations for the radical changes in Charlotte's methods, style, focus, and authority. The question of the gap remains: what happened to her writing, if she did not give it up or destroy it? The answer, for the months she spent in Brussels at any rate, is that she continued to write but in a new form, the form of the essay or devoir. A sketch of her background as a writer and student may explain why this shift in genre mattered. In the thirteen years of writing that preceded her first trip, Charlotte Bronte had produced at least 103 prose manuscripts and another 180 poetry manuscripts. 3 She had taught herself how to describe, how to narrate, and how to develop character and dialogue. So although her early tales are uneven, they constitute a rigorous apprenticeship. Her formal education had been patchy: ten dismal months at the Clergy Daughters School at Cowan Bridge when she was eight and nine;4 then, when she was fourteen, the first of three half-years at Miss Wooler's school at Roe Head. Like her siblings, however, she had read everything that came her way, sat listening while her aunt and father spoke of current events, and transposed what she learned into her fiction. With a freedom accorded few grown women of the period, she had pursued whatever held her interest: politics, history, the classics, myth and

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literature, geography, the lives of famous men. 5 More traditionally, she grew up on the Bible. Her attraction to things French was apparent a dozen years before she made plans to go to Brussels. French characters began to appear in her fiction as early as 1829.6 In 1830, when she was fourteen, she translated the first book of The Henriade, by Voltaire.? Exactly four months later, she changed the name of the Glass Town (capital and center of the children's juvenilia) to a compound French and Greek word: "Verreopolis." Heger told Gaskell that the Brontes knew no French, but Charlotte's friend Ellen Nussey contradicts him, and so does the fact that she won the French prize at the end of her second term at Roe Head.8 Before Charlotte went there she knew "a little French," and at the school "[s]he soon began to make a good figure in French lessons." That knowledge helped her "when afterwards she was engaged in translation or dictation."9 She also used French (faultily) in writing to Ellen and in many of her juvenilia narratives. 10 In her stories, she associates the language with Paris, and Paris with glamour and high culture. She links it too with worldliness; the characters who linger there are often disillusioned or corrupted. She never visited the city of her fantasies. A Paris school was far beyond the Brontes' narrow means and, very possibly, beyond her father's tolerance. But in settling for Brussels and the Pensionnat Heger, she began to trade illusion for reality. Her position as a student, in itself, gave rise to changes beyond the obvious shifts in place and language. For the first time, she would show nearly everything she wrote to an audience outside the family circle. In Haworth, she had hypothesized an audience: subscribers to the magazines that she and Branwell edited, the readers she addressed within her fictions. But when she tried to reach beyond her fantasy audience-she sought advice from Southey and then Hartley Coleridge-she met with condescension and discouragement. 11 In Brussels, her reader was neither a projection nor a stranger who would toss her work aside. Heger was a teacher she could ardently respect: "the only master I have ever had." 12

Of course, her Yorkshire readers were not all imaginary. She wrote letters to her family and friends, and at Roe Head School she probably wrote themes. 13 But those writings were in one sphere, the world in which

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she moved and worked, while Glass Town and then Angria formed a separate sphere, or "world below," the children's own term for their creation. That disjunction became dangerous. The Angrian saga was absorbingly private, its references a maze no untrained reader could negotiate. It functioned as a refuge from reality, an opiate, impeding her progress as a novelist. Increasingly, she sensed the limitations of a fiction that was overheated, tortuous, and implausible. But the habits formed through all those years of writing overpowered her whenever she tried, alone, to break them. In Brussels, the barriers started crumbling. At night she still got caught up in her Angrian visions, especially in her lonely second term. But the devoirs represented a more public mode of writing in a language that released the hold of habit. She had to think in French, or do accurate translations, and make her thoughts accessible and clear. Composing on demand necessitated further changes. To write the kind of devoir that would satisfy Heger, she had to fuse creative and expository methods, to invent yet still accede to formal discipline. Lawrence Dessner speculates, rightly, that Charlotte's months in Belgium were "a time of crucial intellectual and artistic growth." 14 In part, that growth resulted from exposure to new sources: the extracts Heger read aloud and lectured on; the works she consulted before she wrote her devoirs; more broadly, her excursions into Brussels and the countryside and life within that smaller world, the pensionnat. In part, it resulted from Heger's efforts to make her a more reflective writer. The change from unself-conscious to premeditated writing, together with the shift into a language not her own, led to more than occasional awkwardness. Still, she was taking firm if clumsy steps away from the solipsistic universe of Angria. This motive for studying abroad, however, had to be kept from her family. Maria Branwell never would have funded the trip if she had realized she was furthering her niece's ambition to become a professional writer. Charlotte's stated purpose was to add to her accomplishments so that she and her two younger sisters could establish a school of their own. From the time she started planning her Belgian venture, she had Emily in mind as her companion. Anne, the youngest sibling, was to have

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her tum later, if their plans for a school worked out. Charlotte's success in persuading her reclusive sibling was probably furthered by Emily's own vision of running a school close to home with her sisters-and enjoying the income it would bring them. She spells out that vision in the diary paper she wrote six months before their journey: "I guess that at the time appointed for the opening of this paper [four years from July 30, 1841]-we (i.e.) Charlotte, Anne, and 1-shall be all merrily seated in our own sitting-room in some pleasant and flourishing seminary having just gathered in for the midsummer holydays our debts will be paid off, and we shall have cash in hand to a considerable amount. papa, Aunt and Branwell will either have been-or be coming-to visit us-it will be a fine warm summery[?] evening. very different from this bleak lookout. ... "15 She may also have gone, at least in part, to please Charlotte, who thought of the trip as a reward for her sister and who might not have been allowed to realize her own dreams if a member of the family had not joined her. 16 Heger's long- and short-term influence on Emily is much less clear than his influence on Charlotte, not only because the evidence is meager, but because her writing seems so independent. In her diary paper of 1845, the only account she left of those months, she simply notes that she and Charlotte went to Brussels and that they returned "in consequence of Aunt's death. "17 It is Charlotte who, as usual, speaks for her sister, here, in a memoir she wrote in 1850. Emily, she says, failed miserably when she first attempted formal schooling (at Roe Head), and it was some years before the experiment of sending her from home was again ventured on. After the age of twenty, having meantime studied alone with diligence and perseverance, she went with me to an establishment on the Continent: the same suffering and conflict ensued, heightened by the strong recoil of her upright, heretic and English spirit from the gentle Jesuitry of the foreign and Romish system. Once more she seemed sinking, but this time she rallied through the mere force of resolution: with inward remorse and shame she looked back on her former failure, and resolved to conquer in this second ordeal. She did conquer: but the victory cost her dear. She was

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never happy till she carried her hard-won knowledge back to the remote English village .... 18 Charlotte edits out her part in the experiment by using the passive phrase "was ... ventured on." Still, her account accords with everything now known about Emily's character. Unlike Charlotte, Emily never wanted wings that would carry her away from Haworth; she never would have gone to Brussels hoping to find "connections far more improving, polished, and cultivated, than any [she) had yet known." 19 She had no desire to give up her juvenilia, the Gondal cycle she and Anne shared. In fact, she drafted Gondal poems in Belgiurn.20

It is tempting to read "Self-Interrogation," the last ofthe three, as a personal reflection: "The vanished day? It leaves a sense Of labour hardly done; Of little, gained with vast expense,A sense of grief alone!" But the lines are in quotation, and their speaker is imaged as an aging soldier, reproached by time and conscience, who has "little learnt to bear" his defeat. 21 Later references to fighting could be metaphorical but seem to point to Gondal's civil wars. And even if she did project her mood into her speaker, Emily was no defeated warrior. Whatever her attitude toward Heger and his teaching, she had not left horne to squander her time. Once committed, she drove herself relentlessly. She learned passable French and the rudiments of German, she gained skill in drawing,22 and, studying under Heger's brother-in-law, "the best professor [of music] in Belgiurn,"23 she rapidly improved as a pianist. The Brontes' industry and progress delighted the Hegers who, from the first, had approved the sisters' purpose in seeking instruction abroad. They themselves had been drawn together by a mutual dedication to teaching,24 and they remained professionals who shared responsibilities, the wife managing the school and its expenses, the husband teaching there and at the A the nee Royal (the high school for boys across the way). If, despite this sharing, Constantin Heger held basically conservative

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views about women's roles, he recognized that people placed as the Brontes were would need an education to maintain themselves. He later told Gaskell how he and his wife had warmed to "the simple earnest tone" of Charlotte's letter of inquiry: "These are the daughters of an English pastor, of moderate means, anxious to learn with an ulterior view of instructing others, and to whom the risk of additional expense is of great consequence. Let us name a specific sum, within which all expenses shall be included. "25 These themes emerge again in the letter he sent to Patrick Bronte after Aunt Branwell's death: "In a year each of your daughters would have been quite prepared for any eventuality of the future; each of them while receiving instruction was at the same time acquiring the science of teaching. "26 Heger almost certainly continued to believe that he was preparing and encouraging the Brontes to become successful teachers in England. In the meantime, they were gifted and assiduous students, a credit to the school and to his methods. "With such pupils we have had but little to do," he declared to Patrick Bronte in seeking their return, "their advancement is your work more than ours. We have not had to teach them the value of time and instruction; they had learnt all that in their paternal home, and we, on our part, have had only the feeble merit of directing their efforts and providing suitable aliment for the praiseworthy activity for which your daughters are indebted to your example and teaching. "27 This declaration is more telling as a sample of his prose than as a comment on his merits or their father's. Charlotte and Emily had formed their own work habits, and Heger's apparently modest disclaimer belies the complexity of his intervention and the power he exerted in the classroom.

The Professor and His System By all accounts, Constantin Heger was an unforgettable teacher. According to one obituary notice, he had "a precious gift, a sort of intellectual magnetism, by virtue of which he entered the mind of a student, exciting its curiosity [and] keeping it incessantly alert. ... "28 Even for students immune to that gift, he was a force that could not be disregarded, a teacher who blended sensitivity with discipline, histrionics and highhandedness with unaffected kindness, and openness with judgment and

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authority. For much of his life, he held a full-time post at the Athenee Royal, where he specialized in rhetoric and literature and, by his own choice, taught the youngest class of boys. He also taught classes to the girls at his wife's pensionnat, gave dramatic readings to her whole school on some evenings, and spent others doing charitable work. (In his Prize Day speech of 1834 at the Athenee, he had noted that "the number of children attending school in Belgium is one out of eleven inhabitants." He later gave free evening classes to laborers and the poor). 29 When the Brontes arrived, the Hegers had three daughters, and Zoe Heger was visibly pregnant with the son she gave birth to six weeks later. She had a fourth daughter toward the end of Charlotte's last term and a second son three years later. Heger was devoted to his wife, his growing family, his religion, and his profession. Although his schedule left him little time for private lessons, he believed in personal commitment to his students-to all of them, not just the special cases. As he told the abbe Richardson, who came to him for help, a teacher should be guided by two precepts: "His first requirement was perfect self-sacrifice ... 'un devou absolu' were his words .... For him the foundation, and the essential requirements for success [in the classroom] were order and discipline ... obtained not by fear, but by patience and unfailing watchfulness.... His next precept was to study the pupils, to know each one of them, to neglect none, and above all never to allow an aversion towards any [to enter one's heart]." 30 According to Frederika Macdonald, who studied at the pensionnat in 1859, he excelled "in calling out one's best faculties; in stimulating one's natural gifts; in lifting one above satisfaction with mediocrity; in fastening one's attention on models of perfection; in inspiring one with a sense of reverence and love for them .... " 31 These reminiscences accord with Gaskell's interview and subsequent description of his methods. First, in keeping with his policies, he studied his new English pupils. What he saw convinced him that they could learn French without the usual drilling in grammar and vocabulary. (Charlotte's early notebooks include such exercises, but probably another teacher gave them.) After consulting with his wife, he decided to teach them by a "new plan." Actually, the method was one he had "occasionally" employed with his older French and Belgian students, though not

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with pupils learning the language. It entailed reading them "some of the master-pieces of the most celebrated French authors." Then he would move from the whole to the parts, pointing out the author's strengths and weaknesses. The field might be literature, religion, or history, the extract a portrait, poem, or narrative. He would indicate aspects of its style and technique and then direct the sisters to write a composition that would "[reproduce] their own thoughts in a somewhat similar manner." 32 As they improved, he advanced to "synthetical teaching," presenting and contrasting several accounts of the same event or individual. He would prompt them to trace the differences back to the perspectives and characters of the various authors. "And from these conflicting characters," Gaskell concludes, "he would require them to sift and collect the elements of truth, and try to unite them into a perfect whole. " 33 At least one of Charlotte's notebooks supports this explanation. 34 1t contains copies of the extracts Heger dictated, and for several of those dictees there are corresponding devoirs. For example, he dictated Chateaubriand's "Evening Prayer on Board a Ship"; she wrote a devoir, "Evening Prayer in a Camp." He dictated a passage from Chateaubriand's

The Martyrs; she wrote about the Protestant Anne Askew's martyrdom. He dictated Michaud's "Capture of Jerusalem by the Crusaders" and Hugo's "Mirabeau on the Tribune"; she wrote about Peter, the hermitcrusader, and modeled her methods after Hugo's. But the devoirs of both sisters suggest that Heger did not always give assignments of this kind. Some were much simpler: compose an invitation and have the recipient turn it down. Others were more structured: he would dictate an outline of Ia matiere, or content, and leave them to fill in the details. In one case, Millevoye's "The Fall of the Leaves," heapparently asked Charlotte to consider how the poem produced its effects on the reader. In his interview with Gaskell, Heger gives the impression that he devised assignments for the Brontes exclusively. That too is less than fully accurate, for even if he meant to give them special attention, Heger was a very busy teacher. As Charlotte told Ellen three months after arriving, the "few private lessons" he had "vouchsafed to give" them were to be considered "a great favour." 35 It seems likely that she transcribed some, perhaps most, of her dictees in a class with other students; that she and

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Emily (when her French improved enough) did assignments normally required of the others; and that when Heger gave them private lessons, he recycled at least some of his readings and lectures from his more advanced classes at the pensionnat or Athenee. 36 Translations of English excerpts into French he probably assigned to Charlotte alone, since no one else was equipped to do them, but they would not entail much preparation time. Both the Gaskell interview and the devoirs make it clear that Heger setthe terms of each assignment, with the·exception of Charlotte's "Jane" fragment and perhaps a few texts from her second year. Even when his instructions are not extant, they can sometimes be conjectured from the devoirs. In the first term, they seem to have been quite specific; later, when Charlotte was teaching and studying, he probably gave her more latitude. But even when he supervised their writing projects closely, he recognized theirneed for self-expression. As he said to Gaskell, "it is necessary ... before sitting down to write on a subject, to have thoughts and feelings about it. I cannot tell on what subject your heart and mind have been excited. I must leave that to you. " 37 To this system, the sisters responded so differently that they almost seem to have encountered two professors: Charlotte's master and Emily's autocrat. Charlotte took to the discipline that Heger imposed. She welcomed his mentorship because it suited her to read and write responsively. As she told Ellen Nussey in an often-quoted passage, "I was twenty-six years old a week or two since-and at that ripe time of life I am a schoolgirl-a complete school-girl and on the whole very happy in that capacity It felt very strange at first to submit to authority instead of exercising it-to obey orders instead of giving them-but I like that state of things-I returned to it with the same avidity that a cow that has long been kept on dry hay returns to fresh grass .... " 38 But to believe that she submitted as calmly as a cow is to misunderstand her motives and his methods. If a few early pieces stick closely to his models-"The Sick Young Girl" is the obvious example-the rest display initiative and, despite some shaky French, a rhetoric that marks them as her own. And she would only have consented to obey a teacher who earned her respect and confidence. Heger gained both for a number of reasons, none of them especially

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romantic. Despite a mercurial, choleric disposition, he was a thorough professional. He could emote like an Angrian hero, bursting into tears when his students behaved stupidly or lighting up with pleasure as he read some lofty passage.39 But his moods were signs of his commitment to his work and a factor in his "intellectual magnetism." Charlotte initially made fun of his behavior: "sometimes he borrows the lineaments of an insane Tom-cat-sometimes those of a delirious Hyena-occasionallybut very seldom he discards these perilous attractions and assumes an air not above one hundred degrees removed from what you would call mild & gentleman-like." 40 Yet as Lucy Snowe's development in Villette sug-

gests, Charlotte came to treasure her teacher's liberating influence. She herself was constantly divided between opposites: reason and imagination, self-restraint and ardor, duty and rebellion, humility and boldness. Heger unself-consciously united mind and heart and demanded that his students do the same. He commended the proofs of feeling in her essays-he faulted one of Emily's for lacking filial sentiment-but he also kept after her to discipline her writing, to control the tone, the metaphors, and the structure. Years later, Heger claimed that the sisters "hardly ever" kept to the subject he set them. 41 But the evidence suggests that Charlotte meant to follow orders, though her interests sometimes carried her off course. In any case, her work became a forum for her views, a means of demonstrating culture and intelligence. In one four-page devoir, "The Immensity of God," she alludes to Milton, quotes from the eighth psalm, remarks on advances in the science of optics, and briefly cites Huygens's views on distant stars and light waves. In her longest essay," Athens Saved by Poetry," she draws on Plutarch, Homer, Euripides, and Sophocles as she develops a dramatic confrontation between a Spartan general and a poet. She had gone abroad determined to increase her accomplishments. Under Heger, she acquired new motives: to impress him by her industry, champion her religion, and write better essays than the natives. (As one of her classmates commented later, "she mixed in moral reflections, where we related only the facts ... ").42 Perhaps she was also spurred by rivalry with Emily, although that is difficult to prove. 43 In Heger's view, Charlotte was completely unselfish in catering to her sister's demands. But she had maneuvered Emily into

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going, and if she subsequently made herself compliant, doing so was proof that she could manage her less proficient sibling as well as the routines. As she says in her May letter to Nussey, she takes to Heger's regimen with bovine "avidity," whereas Emily works "like a horse." She finds Heger amusing and quite bearable, whereas Emily and Heger "don't draw well together at all." She has the grounding in French and the temperament to get through the course of instruction. Emily, less prepared and far more prone to homesickness, is coping, but with enormous effort.44 Heger would nonetheless tell Gaskell that Emily had the greater genius, and Charlotte concurred in his estimate. "I should say Ellis will not be seen in his full strength till he is seen as an essayist," she wrote as Currer Bell in 1848.45 Ellis's only essays are the devoirs, which Heger, not Charlotte, preserved. Emily's thoughts about the texts she was producing are missing from the record, as usual, but clashes with Heger could have been predicted by anyone aware of her character. For her, independence and freedom of will were primary conditions of existence. Heger proposed to have her learn by "catching the echo" of another author's style. She found that plan repugnant and said so. More strictly, she "said she saw no good to be derived from it; and that, by adopting it, they should lose all originality of thought and expression." 46 Heger, Gaskell adds, "had no time" to argue, and perhaps no patience for objections from a woman who could barely speak his language. The friction between them was not minor. Heger believed that imitation was central to all forms of learning. Like Emily's, his conviction was rooted in ontology, his sense of the nature of being. The child, he said later, first learns virtue and morality by seeking the approval of its parents; to emulate the work and behavior of those who are superior comes naturally to humankind, "created in the image of God and for God." Emulation could become harmful if overdone. Properly directed and nurtured, however, it would be the student's "surest and wisest" guide. 47 These ideas (taken from Heger's second Prize Day speech, which Charlotte heard in 1843 with so much pleasure) intimate the basis of his differences with Emily. Motherless at three and profoundly unconventional, in both her religion and her indifference to approval, she could hardly have "drawn well" with a man whose tenets were so deeply com-

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munal and orthodox. In practice, his plan gave her more freedom than it promised. "Harold" and probably "The Cat" and "The Butterfly" are essays that echo or respond to other writings, yet all three are distinctively Emily's; Heger did not try to rein her in. Once she submitted a devoir, however, it was subject to another form of his control: corrections that could become so intrusive that they virtually took over her pages. Charlotte welcomed these signs of Heger's attention. Emily almost certainly did not. Still, she never stopped working, and she made dramatic progress. If in fact she arrived knowing scarcely any French, her achievement within four months was staggering. Charlotte would claim in 1850 that "on [Emily's] mind time and experience alone could work: to the influence of other intellects, it was not amenable. " 48 It may not have been amenable to Heger's, but she made her way through his French and German readings and wrote telling essays in response to his assignments, even the constricting ones. She kept to her own ways, nevertheless, by writing on English themes whenever she could and, less overtly, by adhering to the order of English rather than French sentences. Charlotte, after her earliest devoirs, seemed to be thinking in the new language. Emily sought equivalents and translated. Heger's impressions of this singular pupil have been quoted many times since Gaskell printed them. He admired her "head for logic" and capacity to argue but felt that these formidable gifts were impaired by her "stubborn tenacity of will." He added, "She should have been a man-a great navigator" or a historian. Instead, she was a woman taking his classes, her shyness no mask for the convictions that made her "obtuse to all reasoning where her own wishes, or her own sense of right, was concerned. " 49 Heger wanted to be tolerant, unlike the Brontes, but his sense of right was as powerful as theirs, and by any kind of logic that prevailed in his world, Emily should have conceded. Yet despite the irritation he must sometimes have felt, he remained a fair and even a generous teacher, praising her devoirs and praising her in the letter he wrote to Patrick Bronte. With Charlotte, of course, he encountered no such problems. Long before she was aware of her passion for the man, she was fervently responsive to the mentor.

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Teaching by Precept Heger was exceptionally thoughtful about the processes of learning and composing. Impetuous in performance, he based his practice nonetheless on theories, plans, and precepts that he codified. Gaskell draws on some of his ideas when she describes his methods of teaching; for example, he believed in studying the framework or construction of a piece, in his terms,

Ia charpente. 50 More pragmatic rules and hints-the need to stick to the point, for example-can be gathered from his comments on the devoirs. Although Charlotte does not say so, Heger also liked to express his views epigrammatically. As Frederika Macdonald recalls, "he held in reserve a store of ... really luminous phrases, that he would use as little Lanterns .... " 51 Her memoir of her own two years at the pensionnat includes half-a-dozen examples. In print, those maxims seem preachy and didactic, mementos of a system long outdated. But considered in conjunction with Charlotte's past experience, they offer provocative clues to the influence that he exerted over her writing. First, "before entering upon the study of any noble or high order of thoughts," Heger ordered his students to shed their vulgar interests, as one would leave one's shoes outside a mosque. He instructed them in methods of "putting off the shoes"-preparing individually for meditative study-and he began his lessons by summoning one pupil to stand and recite the invocation: Spirit of Wisdom, guide us: Spirit of Truthfulness, teach us: Spirit of Charity, invigorate us: Spirit of Prudence, preserve us: Spirit of Strength, defend us: Spirit of Justice, enlighten us: Comforting spirit, soothe us. 5 2 There is no way of knowing whether this litany introduced any of the Brontes' classes (though Macdonald implies that Heger's routines were long established by her time, seventeen years later). But whether or not he invoked these guardian spirits, he would have promoted the concept of the sanctuary, thereby conferring a professor's blessing on a practice

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the sisters had grown up with. It is important, however, to discriminate between his "sacred space" and the Brontes' "world below." Heger had no sealed compartments in his system. His students were to contemplate, to take in great ideas, and then return enriched to daily life. More practically, they were to tum to their desks and put what they had learned into their devoirs. Writing thus became a means of integration, not a medium of secrecy and separateness. Heger's second principle, according to Macdonald, was "[t]hat one must give one's soul as many forms as possible. II faut donner ason ame toutes les formes possibles. "53 Again, the words sanction Charlotte Bronte's convictions. She had written her stories under various guisesArthur Florian Wellesley, Captain Tree, Charles Townshend-and populated them with evolving characters. Determined also "to cultivate her tastes" rather than just equip herself to earn a living, she had (in Mary Taylor's words) "picked up every scrap of information concerning painting, sculpture, poetry, music, etc., as if it were gold."54 But living in Haworth was scarcely conducive to the growth of an eclectic sensibility. In contrast, Heger's program was broad and comprehensive. Believing "that every sort of literature and literary style has its merits, except the literature that is not literary and the style that is bad, "55 he provided a range of readings on natural phenomena, animals, social customs, heroes, traits, religious and historical events. He lectured not only on standard authors from the seventeenth through the nineteenth centuries but also, and unusually, on the French Romantics, whose works were still corning out. 56 He also had his students write devoirs in several modes: descriptive, epistolary, meditative, analytic. It is easy now to smile at Heger's fuzzy terminology and sweeping use of "style," "soul," and "literature." But a theory deficient in elements of grandeur would never have satisfied a Bronte. "I believe," Charlotte wrote about "The Fall of the Leaves," "that all true poetry is but the faithful imprint of something that happens or has happened in the poet's soul." Heger concurred: "very good quite right." But he added, "Poet or not ... study form," advice that would prove indispensable. His third maxim, as Macdonald recalls it, prescribed the proper use of imagery: "One must never employ, nor tolerate the employment of, a literary image as an argument. The purpose of a literary image is to illu-

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minate as a vision, and to interpret as a parable. An image that does not serve both these purposes is a fault in style. " 57 His response to Charlotte's Millevoye essay suggests what he meant by "interpret" and "illuminate." He agrees with her that genius is a gift from heaven; work alone cannot create a poet. But then he turns to "force" and "machinery." He asks her to "imagine two men of equal strength," the first "without a lever," who "will lift 1,000 pounds," the other "with a lever" who "will uproot a plane tree" by employing the same amount of effort. Shifting from mechanics to the arts, he compares uncultivated genius to a painter ignorant of color and perspective, a Demosthenes whose stammering prompts hisses, a singing soul whose outlet is a rough and raucous voice, a "sublime musician" with an "untuned piano," and finally, a diamond "without the lapidary." These analogies, following one after the other, develop and illustrate his point. In effect, as he progresses the boundaries blur, so that the metaphors constitute the message. Yet at the same time they accompany an argument: "Without study, no art." Whatever the apparent ambiguity between Heger's theory of the image and his practice, the principle struck a chord in Charlotte. She was aware of her own inclination to substitute imagery for argument. In a fragment that she left untitled and unfinished, a letter that begins "My dear Jane," the narrator, groping to express a thought, declares, "I see everything through the colored glass of simile." "I see everything" has been canceled, however, and revision had been added in the margin: "as you well know, I have the bad habit of seeing everything [through the colored glass] .... " 58 The change hints at the customary split in Charlotte's thinking. Though she sometimes felt guilty about the way she visualized, she remained reluctanttocurb her "bad habit," and "My dear Jane" continues with just the kind of simile that Heger could attack "as an argument": "And this idea appears before me like a bird, who comes from a distant land of charity and mildness and who, alighting on the branch of a vine that I imagine being close to me but is not, folds its brilliant wings and looks at me with an eye that seems to say, 'Have pity on your friend Jan e. She is better and sweeter than you .... "' The fragment becomes increasingly disordered, and she abandons it eighteen lines later. But she never lost the impulse to vivify concepts "through the colored glass of simile." In her books, ideas take the forms

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of animals and people; they come to her protagonists as visions or as voices. Consider the passage in The Professor, the novel she deliberately stripped of ornament, in which hypochondria, like a demon lover, sings and whispers to the captive William Crimsworth (ch. 23); or consider how Lucy Snowe envisions Human Justice in the devoir Paul Emanuel compels her to write (ch. 35). These passages, however, abide by Heger's rule in that they illustrate an argument the speaker has implied or communicate a state of mind through parable. More broadly, Heger's lessons on imagery catalyzed a newly elaborate use of metaphor. As Alexander says, Charlotte had grown up with "A Visual Imagination."59 Her ability to visualize approached hallucination, as she herself notes in journal entries. She did not just conceive of her Angrian characters. They appeared before her, she heard their conversations, and her feet "trod the ... shores" of their kingdom. 60 But until she went to Brussels, her tropes were rarely intricate. At nineteen, she refers to herfantasy kingdom as "the ark which forme floats alone on the face of this world's desolate and boundless deluge." 61 In telling Ellen Nussey of her project for a school, she alludes to the "chicken" that may either "come out ... full-fledged" or "turn addle and die before it cheeps."62 But the metaphoric language in the juvenilia is more apt to be derivative and brief. Flames dart from the earth or circle "like fiery snakes"; a corpse is "all untouched by the wasting finger of decay." 63 Descriptions abound. She sketches clothes, countenances, scenery and buildings, the movements and expressions of her characters. But her very aptitude for literal depiction may have limited her interest in analogy. Why conceive of something her protagonist was "like" when a portrait could be taken directly? "[Lady Zenobia's] head was bare, her tall person was enveloped in the tattered remnants of a dark velvet mantle. Her dishevelled hair hung in wild elf-locks over her face, neck and shoulders, almost concealing her features, which were emaciated and pale as death. " 64 Even when her imagery pertains to mind and character, it lacks psychological complexity: "The Duke of Zamorna's consciencea vessel of a thousand tons burthen-brought up a cargo of blood to his face, his nostrils opened-his head was as high, his chest as full & his attitude, standing by the table, as bold as if, from the ramparts of Gazemba, he was watching Arundel's Horsemen scouring the Wilderness. " 65

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The one exception is the famous poem she wrote at Roe Head late in 1835. Cut offfrom the conditions that fostered creativity and fearful that her kingdom was receding from her grasp, she invoked the power of metaphor to summon it back and revive her capacity for visions: We wove a web in childhood A web of sunny air We dug a spring in infancy Of water pure and fair We sowed in youth a mustard seed We cut an almond rod We are now grown up to riper age Are they withered in the sod ....6 6 This poem aside, she was far from using metaphor to animate abstractions and intensify description. She had yet to learn how tropes could work complexly and symbolically. In Brussels, she began to absorb those lessons and grasp the potential of the image. Heger taught by example and lecture (on Hugo's "Mirabeau on the Tribune," for instance), as well as by his comments on her devoirs, and she began to respond. In" Athens Saved by Poetry," Cassandra reveals herself, "white, stiff, petrified, as if her veins were filled with ice in place of blood; all disheveled, her locks in disarray, streaming at the mercy of the wind; her white shoulders gleaming beneath her wild hair, like the moon through clouds." This passage echoes the one on Zenobia, but simile and a more compressed, inverted syntax advance it beyond representation. For the first time, Charlotte was writing in a genre that forced her to be clear about abstractions. Heger's assignments made her think like a critic about an author's style, the effect of a passage, and the motives and perspective that prompted it. She also had to imitate style and substance, to write texts that echoed what she studied. In the juvenilia, she had attempted parodies and modeled her romances after Byron's. But her approach had not been reflective; character and action were paramount. For her devoirs, she could still compose episodes and portraits, but she also had to think about concepts. They came to her as images, and so she

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described them: Vice as a woman with a garland of flowers and a serpent peeking out from the petals; Reason as a bird that becomes a mocking ape as it exposes the narrator's hypocrisy. 67 Perhaps she had thought imagistically since childhood, but Heger helped her define what she was doing. He guided and legitimated impulse. Heger's fourth maxim, according to Macdonald, was "that one must never neglect the warning one's ear gives one of a fault in style; and never trust one's ear exclusively about the merits of a literary style."68 To develop his students' ears he often read aloud to them, uniting an actor's range and power with a pedagogue's desire to mold and stimulate.69 "He was a magnificent reader," one of them remembered, "-you saw, you felt, you laughed, you cried, you grew hot, you grew cold, you joyed, you mourned, you went through a riot of emotion, exactly in proportion as he wished." 70 Though the Brontes may not have responded so effusively, listening was a key part of their training. As Gaskell writes, "they were to catch the spirit and rhythm [of French] rather from the ear and the heart ... than by over-careful and anxious study of its grammatical rules. "71 The method could produce its own anxieties. Forbidden for some weeks to use a grammar book or dictionary, Charlotte made elementary errors. In the long run, however, Heger's aural training improved her style in French and in English. Of course, as a child she had never lacked a rich and diverse oral culture. Every Sunday the Bronte children heard their father's sermons. When the papers came, he read the news aloud. Tabitha Ackroyd, the servant, told them stories, and Branwell sometimes read to the girls as they sewed, perhaps as Robert Moore in Shirley reads to Caroline Belstone.72 Their own early tales began as "Plays" that they acted out or narrated. And all their sagas were collaborative efforts. Charlotte and Branwell maintained Angria together, discussing their plans or keeping current through their letters, while Emily and Anne kept developing Gondal until Emily died (at thirty). But no one knows how much of the writing they shared orally or how much critical judgment they exercised. Judging from the evidence of the juvenilia, Charlotte's ear was poorly attuned to faults of style, or she got so carried away by her visions that she could not be bothered to correct

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them. Ampersands and dashes string her clauses together; adjectives and adverbs proliferate. Even now, when the manuscripts appear in print with punctuation edited for clarity, reading the stories aloud smoothly is difficult because of their undisciplined syntax. Although she attempted to control her last novelettes, dramatic improvement in style and sound came only in the novels after Brussels. How much of the improvement can be credited to Heger, how much to her exposure to French literature and language, and how much to maturity and discipline? Probably these factors are interconnected and mutually reinforcing. To judge by Charlotte's devoirs, the study of French increased her awareness of word order, stress, and the ebb and flow of clauses in a sentence. Gropingly at first, but with increasing fluency, she tried for effects of her own. Heger provided a conceptual framework, criteria for assessing tone and nuance. He also showed her how her work sounded by reading it (and Emily's) aloud to other students.73 These lessons traveled with her to Haworth. When she "accidentally lighted" on Emily's poems, she assessed their merits partly by their sound: "To my ear, they had also a peculiar music-wild, melancholy, and elevating."74 When the three "Bells" were writing their novels, they consulted each other in the evenings. "Once or twice a week," Charlotte told Elizabeth Gaskell, "each read to the others what she had written, and heard what they had to say about it. " 75 Charlotte rarely felt the need to alter her work as a result of these conferences. But by then, she was choosing and arranging words with care and weighing their effect on an audience. Heger's fifth rule was directed to the struggling writer: "One must not fight with a difficult sentence; but take it for a walk with one; or sleep with the thought of it present in one's mind; and let the difficulty arrange itself whilst one looks on."76 Like his maxim on the sanctuary, this one reinforces an idea long familiar to the Brontes. As an adolescent, Charlotte looked on, or inward, while her characters enacted their dramas. She wrote with her eyes nearly closed, in a state of trance, trusting her visions to inspire her. But again, there is a critical difference between her approach and Heger's. His rule was not to be construed as an endorsement of uncontrolled, unconscious invention. It was a method of getting around the frustration that could leave a writer blocked. Here as else-

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where his advice was functional, not because he disavowed intuition, but because he distinguished between "gifts" like creativity and faculties that people could develop. Although Charlotte would continue to rely on inspiration, her subsequent method of invoking it recalls this maxim. Asked by Gaskell about Lucy Snowe's drugged vision, she replied by explaining the "process" she followed whenever she "had to describe anything which had not fallen within her own experience": she would think "intently on it for many and many a night before falling asleep" until, perhaps weeks later, "she wakened up in the morning with all clear before her... :m Heger's sixth and final maxim-"One should not read, before sitting down to write, a great stylist with a marked manner of his own; unless this manner happens to resemble one's own"78-seems less applicable to her. Other authors' styles did not rub off on Charlotte, despite her responsive sensibility. But the emphasis on manner and the training he provided probably had long-range consequences. Ultimately, she would forge a personal style as distinct as any writer's in English.79 The effects of Heger's precepts on Emily Bronte are less traceable but easy to surmise. Maxims, by definition, codify ideas. Emily detested codification. She could teach herself what she needed to know about the concept of the sanctuary, imagery, and style. Besides, her writing was already distinctive-beyond the range of Heger's "little Lanterns." As for giving her soul "as many forms as possible," her retort can be imagined from the answer she gave to the girls who teased her about her appearance: "I wish to be as God made me.''80 Still, as Heger's pupil she was bound to do her homework and submit her devoirs to his scrutiny. Like Charlotte, she had to take account of his corrections., whatever her opinion of his precepts.

Teaching through Practice Unlike much of the evidence for Heger's principles, the proofs of his practice come directly from the manuscripts the Brontes submitted or transcribed. His markings do not just offer text-specific comments. They open a window on his methods, his attitude, and his relations with each sister. Even unmarked devoirs can yield clues to his influence when set within

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the context of his precepts and instructions or analyzed as units in a sequence. Of the extant essays that they wrote to be read by him (a count excluding Charlotte's notes and fragments), ten are clean copies, eight have been corrected lightly, and nine bear signs of heavy intervention. There are also four revised drafts, two with his corrections and two, mailed to Gaskell, in his handwriting. This count only hints at the procedures Heger expected his students to follow. As Macdonald says, "The pupil was supposed to write in her own note-book a rough copy of the composition, leaving a wide margin for corrections. The fair copy of the exercise given Monsieur Heger was also to have a wide margin. In the ordinary course when the corrected exercise was returned the pupil was held to verify the remarks made, and to re-write the composition, for her own benefit only, with the improvements suggested. "81 Presumably, then, some of the surviving clean copies are revisions of drafts that Heger corrected. (In one case, "The Death of Moses," there was certainly a marked draft, since Gaskell saw it in Brussels.) And the stages of revision can be complex. Charlotte occasionally wrote her own corrections on the copy Heger handed back to her, and Heger himself returned to several of the manuscripts, marking them more thoroughly the second time. Sometimes his pencil moved lightly through their pages, merely underscoring faulty words or elements. At other times, his pen was persistently in motion: he drew wavy lines and straight lines, crossed words out, revised phrasing, used the margins to pose questions and express his admiration, and appended observations at the end. Heger may have thought that Emily had more genius, but Charlotte got the bulk of his attention. The comments throughout her pages are more numerous, and further remarks follow three of her devoirs, as opposed to two brief end comments on Emily's. The kind of attention he gave them also differs. On Emily's pages it takes two forms: he praises what he likes and revises French that is either faulty or limited. While this procedure lets her know what needs fixing, it does little to engage her in the work. On Charlotte's pages too he corrects by rewriting, but he makes much more effort to involve her. When the reasons for correction are not self-evident, he lets her know why he objects. By framing his objections as inquiries or glosses, he prompts her to weigh the effects she has pro-

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duced and the assumptions that underlie her statements. Thus his comments-assenting, chiding, asking-form a dialogue responsive to the text and to its author. Predictably, the commonest notations alert both sisters to errors. Verbs in the imperfect tense are changed to the past; particle and gender flaws are rectified; punctuation (never Charlotte's forte) is adjusted; unidiomatic phrasing is crossed out or overwritten. He gets after "barbarismes," English words that they insert where they do not know the French ones.82 When Charlotte has vocabulary problems, he either tells her to look up the meaning or adds the word or phrase she should have chosen: "discours" ("speech" or "address") in place of "sermons"; "convoqua" ("convoked") in place of "appella" ("called") where she writes of summoning a counsel.83 But even on this technical level, Heger does not merely tighten nuts and bolts. He corrects to gain precision, to bring details into focus, and to clarify vision and concepts. In Charlotte's "Palace of Death," for example, where she says that War's arm seems "assez fort pour brandiller Ia lance d'un Achille" ("strong enough to wave about the lance of an Achilles"), he hints at the distinction between "brandiller" (to "swing" or "shake") and "brandir" (to "brandish" or "flourish"). Where she observes, "Death smiled," he asks "How?" And when Ambition tells Death that her empire will soon be filled-"bientot votre empire sera rempli"he replaces "sera rempli" with "regorgera" ("will be glutted"), which is both more precise and more evocative. Through such notation, he guided Charlotte toward a new and necessary critical awareness. Of course she was conscious of her talent. She excelled at illustration, and not in words alone, since she had painted, sketched, and reproduced engravings. But the sheer extravagance of items in the juvenilia works against selection and emphasis. Often, she combines striking details with cliches or submerges them in protracted dialogues. At the pensionnat, confronted with more formal writing projects, she put the old wordpainting skills to use: "It was the eve of a battle; one might have said that the glorious orb [of the setting sun] presaged the carnage of the morrow, so enflamed did its disk appear, so lit up the west seemed from its fires. The broken columns, the ancient vaults, the hieroglyphs engraved on the temple walls were covered with a ruby tint. The moon, pale and serene,

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rose in the east; everywhere the sky was clear and in the midst of the desert, the pyramids arose from the sea of sand, like vast rocks of granite that neither tempest nor hurricane could dislodge." After these lines from "Evening Prayer in a Camp," she intended to portray a band of Protestant soldiers who gather to pray within the pagan ruins before braving the next day's bloody combat. But the setting overwhelms its subject; the sunset takes precedence over the account it was meant to introduce and illuminate; "all this, I know better how to feel than to paint," the narrator concludes apologetically. Heger's "tr bon" beside the sunset passage acknowledges Charlotte's skill at description. But he must have been aware, as she was, that the rest of the devoir goes downhill. He recasts her awkward ending: "all this, I have felt profoundly and can paint but feebly today." More important, within the week he turned her attention to selectivity and contrast. At the end of her next devoir, "The Nest," he added "Advice" that opens with a salient question: "What importance should be given to the details, in developing a subject?" His answer assumes that rules of composition apply equally to literature and art:

Remorselessly sacrifice everything that does not contribute to clarity, verisimilitude, and effect. Accentuate everything that sets the main idea in relief, so that the impression be colorful, picturesque. It's sufficient that the rest be in its proper place, but in half-tone. This is what gives to style, as to painting, its unity, perspective, and effect. He also assumes that these neoclassic principles apply to work from other literary movements, for he next directs her to a poem by the French Romantic Lamartine: "we will analyze it together, from the point of view of

the details." The lesson seems to have taken. In "The Immensity of God," the devoir she wrote in response to Lamartine's poem, her setting leads seamlessly into its subject. Subsequently she introduces details not only as illuminating shafts within her narratives but also to accentuate ideas: "Napoleon was born in Corsica and died on St. Helena; between the two islands there is but a vast continent and the immense ocean. He was born a notary's son and died a captive; between the two states there is but the

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career of a triumphant soldier, but a hundred fields of battle, but a throne, a sea of blood and a Golgotha. Truly his life is a rainbow; the two extreme ends touch the earth, the intervening arc spans the skies."84 Heger's responses alone do not explain the evolution in Charlotte's methods. Exposure to the work of the French Romantics, increasing facility in the new language, and a climate that fostered experimentation could all have worked together to promote it. But certainly he encouraged her development by praising what he liked. His expressions of approval in her margins-"Bon," "tr. bon," or simply "B"--can be classified under several headings. They appear next to phrases in felicitous French; they acknowledge noble sentiments, tellingly expressed; most often, they commend striking images and details, the strokes that bring a narrative to life. Intervention, in itself, was a means of releasing her from habits that the juvenilia had inculcated. In Haworth, she had had little motive to edit or to keep digressions from burgeoning. She made some revisions in her early poems and stories, cutting words or occasionally whole lines, and in her final stories she made even stronger efforts to rein in her imagination. But words were her outlet and her refuge. The trancelike state released her from conscious mediation and a self that was small and plain and powerless. Heger unwittingly broke the hold of habit by limiting her scope, imposing new constraints, and making her look sharply at her writing. She had to ground each devoir in sources beyond the self: the readings, his instructions, her researches. Because she had a different aim and project every time, she could not indulge in labyrinthine plotting. If she wandered or lost track of her aims, her text would lose the unity he valued.85 She did not relinquish Angria entirely. She extols her childhood hero, Wellington, in one devoir and signs another "Howard," her pseudonym for Haworth. She also retains the Romantic hyperbole that she would only hold in check much later: " ... it took no more than an old oak with a mossy trunk, and with twisted branches, than a bubbling spring bordered with wild flowers, than the ivy-covered ruins of a tower bristling with brambles and thorns, to throw me into the most exquisite transports of the soul."86 But then, she was writing for a man who liked theatrics.

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She also chose narrators who made such excess plausible-here, an impetuous young artist. Heger never stopped alerting her to matters of "form" and "art," to unity, economy, placement, proportion, consistency of tone, and plausibility. When in "Peter the Hermit" she suspends a description to talk about "natures" with "indomitable ardor," he chides, "You have begun to speak of Peter ... get to the point. "87 When in "The Death of Napoleon" she starts to digress from a comparison between his exile and Prometheus's, he draws lines through her wandering sentences and adds "vulture of Prometheus" in the margin. The draft he mailed to Gaskell amplifies this hint: "Perhaps there [Napoleon] too felt, gnawing at his flank, those insatiable vultures of whom the fable speaks .... " Dessner claims that Heger's approach anticipates that of the New Critics. 88 Like them, he read texts closely and examined construction, but he also worked within a critical tradition that placed the creator in the foreground. Buffon, in his speech on style, defines the crucial bond between an author's mind and spirit and his writing: "To write well is to think well, sense well, and express well, all at once-to have at the same time wit, soul, and taste." 89 And Heger, who introduced the Brontes to Buffon 's work, 90 made this principle a basis of his method. To develop his students' minds and tastes he exposed them to wide and various readings. As M. H. Spielmann says, Heger's system required them "to analyse (always 'analyse') concisely not the work only but the author's intention, his emotion, manner, and so forth, and especially their own thoughts, emotions and impressions, and to seek out the principles involved. " 91 He believed too that instruction must be personal; if a teacher wanted to improve a student's work, he would have to appeal to that student's sensibility, the matrix from which the work arose. For the emotionally vulnerable Charlotte, this blurring of the boundaries became treacherous. She might see that when his comments were addressed to the writer, they pointed to issues in the writing; she might even understand that his copious revisions-like his loading her with books and their discussions in his study-were signs of his professional commitment; yet they drew her in as powerfully as love notes. How accountable is Heger for stoking her passion? Certainly he made no overtures to Charlotte that anyone could label improper. The

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teacher-pupil poems that she wrote three years later bear witness to a taskmaster who rarely offered praise and a student who thrived on severity.92 In fact, he often commented warmly, though never in the language of romance. His inscription on the copy of the Prize Day speech that he gave her-"to Miss Charlotte Bronte, [from] her master and friend" 93further indicates his view of their relations. Nonetheless, Heger had experience of the world and the will to connect with his students. As a youthful secretary in Paris, he had ghost-written letters to his employer's mistress. 94 And his later correspondence with another former student suggests that his efforts to reach out in empathy could shade into something more flirtatious: "I only have to think of you to see you. I often give myself the pleasure when my duties are over, when the light fades .... I sit down, smoking my cigar, and with a hearty will I evoke your image-and you come ... you, with that little air, affectionate undoubtedly, but independent and resolute ... in fact, just as I knew you, my dear L--, and as I have esteemed and loved you. "95 He responded to the devoirs of the hungry Charlotte with an amplitude he rarely matched with Emily. Aware of the disparity, how could she not have been tempted to believe he found her special? Emily was in no such danger. A fiercely autonomous thinker, wholly unused to any supervision, she could hardly have enjoyed preparing work for a professor whose practice was to write all over it. Still, her devoirs offer circumstantial evidence that she did not resist entirely. First and most important, she wrote them. Whatever it cost her to submit to his methods, she did his assignments. She probably argued or took liberties with them and exercised what Heger called "her strong, imperious will." 96 Over time, however, she may have come to realize that her early objection was groundless; no curriculum could make her "lose all originality of thought and expression." Even when he gave restrictive instructions, she reacted as only she could. In one of her most formulaic essays, for example, a teacher declines to attend a pupil's musical soiree. Heger set the format, invitation andrefusal. Emily decided on the extras: " ... I have heard that you are to play a piece on this occasion, and forgive me ifl advise you (out of pure friendship) to choose a time when everyone is occupied with something other

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than music, for I fear that your performance will be a little too remarkable. " 97 Devoirs like this one might be disconcerting, but they were never dull. (Years later, another English student asked Heger why he had retained the Brontes' devoirs. He replied, "because I saw the genius in them.") 98 The aptitude for charting her own course through assignments made Emily a poor candidate for training. Unlike Charlotte, she already wrote concisely and logically; no one had to discipline her use of imagery or teach her to stick the point. Deliberately or not, she also stuck to topics on which she either knew as much as he did or could offer as valid an opinion. French was the one area in which she needed help. There, Heger could and did correct her. But that she welcomed a professor's intervention, as Charlotte did, seems more than unlikely. Again, the marked devoirs are the only extant evidence; they point to trouble. "Portrait: King Harold before the Battle of Hastings" exists in two versions, the one she wrote that June and Heger's "copy" for Gaskell. By stripping Emily's version of his corrections, I have added a third-in effect, the draft she gave him. Examined successively, these versions reveal a triple-layered process of revision. Heger seems to have begun making changes on a first round. Then he went back and added others, sometimes canceling the first layer and sometimes supplementing it. Finally, for Gaskell, he applied the polish that he thought the essay ought to have. Emily did not live to see that version, but already, in the one she would have gotten back, her spare unvarnished prose is being coated. She refers to those who are gathered on the "champ," the ordinary word for field. Heger qualifies her noun in pencil: "there on that field of battle." Then in ink he converts "field" to "plain where soon must be decided the fate of a kingdom." Later, envisioning Harold with his courtiers, she writes "that his body is a true prisoner." Heger cuts "true" and "body" (which he may have found indelicate) and substitutes his own phrase for hers: "in a word that he is no more than a prisoner in his crown and royal purple." Some of Heger's changes do rectify her French. Others add substance to terse statements. When she writes that the touch of death's hand "is, to the hero, what the stroke that gave him liberty was to the slave," Heger amplifies her analogy: the swordstroke that brings death is but the liber-

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ating tap of the rod with which the master frees the slave. But in a devoir of only 540 words, the mass of correction alone is overwhelming. He does not just revise; he takes over. He is just as high-handed with Charlotte. Near the end of her devoir "The Death of Napoleon," she compares "the glory of Wellington" to "one ofthe ancient oaks that shades the mansion of his fathers": "It grows slowly; it needs time not only to spread its large branches but to sink deep roots, roots that will twist themselves around the solid foundations of the island whose Savior and Defender he has been." Heger does not tamper with the sense ofthe comparison, not even when she says that Napoleon's fame will wither overnight, like Jonah's vine. But in his version he adds his own touches to her metaphor: "The oak grows slowly; it needs time to spread its gnarled branches toward the sky and to sink into the soil those deep roots that will entangle themselves in the solid foundations of the land. But then, the centuries'-old tree, steadfast as the rock where it has its base, will brave both the weather's ills [faux du temps] and the winds' & tempests' efforts." His additions enhance the analogy; "temps," which can mean both "weather" and "time," recalls an earlier reference to the fickle English mob and Wellington's unshakable integrity. But they also prolong a eulogy that carries the narrator away from Napoleon and alters the whole thrust of the essay. How did Charlotte take his high-handedness? As she herself realized, she was ready, even ravenous, to learn from a powerful mentor. With the blurring of distinctions between mentor and love object-clearly abetted by Heger's mode of teaching-any form of notice became positive. Here it may have been especially welcome, since Wellington was her other idol. But in any case, she would have acquiesced. As she declares in a retrospective poem, "Obedience was my heart's free choice I Whatere his word severe. " 99 Still, the choices she was making as a writer depended less on acquiescence or romance than on a new self-consciousness about her work. To trace the growth of that awareness more closely and to see why her devoirs were so pivotal, I want now to turn to the topic that produced the most sustained master-pupil dialogue.

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Genius Genius had fascinated Charlotte Bronte from the time she began inventing plays and stories, and from the first she took the concept personally. She and her siblings called themselves the Four Genii who ruled the developing Glass Town. As Genius Talii she determined her characters' destinies, creating, destroying, and reviving them. Though the Genii vanished from the saga in a few years, she never lost interest in the powers of genius or gave up hope that she had been endowed with them. She thought of genius as an overwhelming force, mysterious yet living, almost tangible. Its presence was manifest in great men and great works of art; its powers were instinctual, not studied. Romantic doctrine almost certainly influenced her thinking: like Coleridge, she distinguished between genius and mere talent; like Wordsworth, she exalted spontaneity. Thus her observation in "The Fall of the Leaves" that poetry expresses what happens in the poet's soul-provided the poet is a genius. Heger was seven years older than Charlotte, but his standards, shaped in part by his classical training, allied him with an earlier generation. Impassioned and individualistic in the classroom, he had obvious affinities with the French Romantics whose works he admired and taught. He also looked for signs of ardor in his students' compositions and urged them to express what they felt. But his methods-emulation, the following of models, going by the rules, attention to form-were neoclassic rather than Romantic. Or perhaps, like many critics at the turn of the century, he wanted to synthesize those strains. Inspiration and control, and their relationship to genius, become issues in at least five of Charlotte's devoirs. "Peter the Hermit," an essay from her first term, raises them briefly yet suggestively. She wrote it in response to Heger's instructions to imitate a "portrait" by Hugo. 100 But as Duthie says, she does not treat her hero or his rhetoric as Hugo treated Mirabeau the orator; instead, she "show[s] her passionate and romantic admiration for the quality of genius in itself. " 101 The historical Peter was small and plain, as undistinguished physically as Charlotte. Yet the chronicles report him persuading kings and soldiers because he had the power of the word, the force of eloquence, and faith that he was serving as God's messenger. She calls him a man of "indomitable ardor." The French "in-

Introduction

domptable" can also mean "unruly" or, in the case of animals, "untamable," and she notes that Peter was undoubtedly "troubled by stormy passions" in his youth. But after years as a warrior and more years as a monk, "inspiration" was "brought to birth ... in his soul." In a section she omits from the draft Gaskell published, she creates a tableau of the field before the battle, with the meager little man in his poor gray habit surrounded by the towering multitudes. Yet Peter does not seem to see anything around him because, she says, his eyes are raised to "God and the angels": "His genius has already mastered that whole army and at this moment he masters himself." Heger has corrected both drafts of the devoir, concentrating mainly on her faulty, heavy prose and on lapses from narrative unity. Yet while he cuts her allusion to "God and the angels," he does not question her attitude toward genius or her basic attitude toward faith. Charlotte seems to have acted on her own in deleting the sentence on mastery and genius, perhaps because it no longer fit her narrative once she cut the tableau of the battlefield. But both she and Heger would come back to that subject, Heger indirectly through the readings he assigned and Charlotte forthrightly in most of the devoirs she wrote during her second year abroad. Her analysis of Millevoye's "Fall of the Leaves" shows the impact of Heger's lessons on her belief in the prerogatives and mysteries of genius. Initially, she planned to consider the poem's effects and speculate on its development. She protiably also meant to show Heger that she understood the principles of composition, both through her comments on the poem he had assigned and through her own focused discussion. Accordingly, she starts with the impressions the poem evokes and then pursues their causes through a series of questions: Did Millevoye work with conscious intention? Did he prepare his canvas, trace the rough outlines, seek and collect images and details, and then balance and adjust all the parts so that they would form a unified whole? "Is that the method all great poets follow?" At this point, conviction rebels against order and Millevoye fades into the background. Conceding the value of this method for the novice or the second-rate talent that is only fit to imitate, she scorns it as the basis for a masterpiece. Lyric poetry, though possibly not tragedy or epic, springs by inspiration from the soul of the poet. Genius, awakened by passionate feelings, need not search for details or think

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about unity; "inspiration takes the place of reflection," and the heart, "filled with a single idea," intuitively seizes on the form. Heger praises a number of these statements; he agrees that inspiration is paramount. But when she writes, "the man of genius produces, without work," he immediately intervenes to check her. Genius may be exempt from ordinary methods, but not from effort, study, and experience. In a page of observations he refutes her assertion, often turning her own metaphors against her. For example, when she deprecates mechanical invention, he asks her whether a lever is worth nothing, possibly recalling that in "Peter the Hermit" she compares the mind of genius to a lever. Implicit in Heger's refutation is his sense of the person he addresses: on the one hand, a bright, enthusiastic student who still requires training and correction; on the other, a writer of exceptional talent who has compelled him to take issue. By then, he must have known that she longed to be a poet, that when she spoke of genius and the force of inspiration she was thinking of herself as well as Millevoye. Though he could hardly have believed she would realize her ambition, his final words allow her to keep hoping. If she is destined to become a poet, the study of form will make her powerful. If not, it will give her a just appreciation of poetry's "merit and ... charms." These considerations must have been on her mind when she began her next devoir, "The Death of Napoleon," for she takes up her subject by asking how an ordinary person should approach the man of towering genius. Does the person "without distinguished talent" have the right to express views on Napoleon's life and death? Her answer is a loaded affirmative: "one cannot deprive mediocrity of the right to judge genius, but it does not follow that her judgment will always be sound." The balanced dispositions of conventional people render them unfit to judge the excesses of genius: "Mediocrity can see the faults of Genius ... but she is too cold, too limited, too egotistical to understand its struggles, its suffering, its sacrifices; she is envious too, and so its very virtues appear to her under a false and tarnished light." The section ends with a caveat: "Let her then approach [Napoleon's tomb] with respect," neither bowing down nor hurling insults, and "preserving her independent though inferior dignity of being.... "

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This preamble-which fills fifty-two lines of manuscript and represents nearly a quarter of the devoir-has been excised from the final version. Thematically and structurally, the cut improves the essay, which focuses without it on Napoleon Bonaparte and not on Charlotte's attitude toward genius. Yet as a clue to the tensions that were building in her life and work, the opening is not at all superfluous. Though the tone is initially objective, even humble, it soon becomes judgmental and reproving. Though the narrator first speaks as an ordinary person, she soon begins denouncing conventional people and, at least implicitly, allying herself with passionate, misunderstood genius. But perhaps the strangest shift occurs near the end of the essay, when she contrasts Bonaparte with Wellington. There she ascribes the duke's greatness-that which makes him Napoleon's superior-to many of the qualities linked here with mediocrity: self-control, balance, disdain for passionate excess, and resistance to the claims of all but conscience. Neither Charlotte nor Heger perceived this contradiction, although Heger has scored her pages heavily. But then, perhaps they were not prepared to view the essay as a devoir aclef. Later readers may detect Charlotte Bronte's self-doubt behind the narrator's fa~;ade of self-confidence. Is she to remain an ordinary person whose refuge will lie in maintaining her dignity and staying "independent though inferior"? Or will her genius be realized and respected? Acknowledgment of any kind had grown much scarcer by May 1843, when she wrote "The Death of Napoleon." 102 Zoe Heger, "always cool & always reasoning," 103 was leaving her in virtual isolation. Worse, as she reported in a letter to Emily, Madame was trying to tum Heger away from her, either from misjudgment and ignorance of her character or from an instinctual "aversion."104 Significantly, at the beginning of this devoir the "ordinary person" is masculine in gender, a "simple particulier" who shows the proper humility in approaching his exalted subject. But when the narrator alludes to the enemy of genius-a chilly, hidebound, and envious creature-her subject shifts from the masculine "person" to a feminine noun, "Mediocrite." In French, such shifts are a function of grammar rather than personal animus. But Charlotte was an Englishwoman coping with an anger that could only be voiced through her writing. Later still, when the nar-

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rator returns from this digression, she retains the feminine pronoun"let her take care"-though logically the subject should be "the common person" or the neutral but more inclusive "we." Yet in this section, as so often happens in the devoirs, the personal emerges obliquely. It can be discerned by those who know of Charlotte's suffering, but it does not undermine her inquiry. It is further controlled by the dialogic patterning-the questions, the movement from one side to the other-which erects a securely logical structure over feelings of uncertainty and turbulence. This method of disclosing tension while veiling it marks a step away from her Angrian romances toward the more controlled realism of her novels. Genius goes unmentioned in "Athens Saved by Poetry," the devoir she wrote after the lonely summer holiday. But she creates a virtual genius in the "indefinably superior" Athenian who sings to save the city from destruction. Another of her physically undersized heroes, he has an advantage over his captors because he is cultivated, self-possessed, gifted, and able to use his resources. In a departure from her earlier protagonists, the poet creates through emulation; recalling Orpheus, who charmed the wild beasts, he resolves to charm the brutish Spartans. The song he composes is inspired by Greek legends, his legacy from childhood and his homeland. But the text does not deliver the fairy-tale ending that its title seems to promise. In a cynical finale, criticized by Heger, the poet discovers that artistry and resolution cannot rouse the insensible. He can save himself, though, and he does. Again, Charlotte's situation seeps into her devoir, but it is distanced and objectified. In contrast, her letters portray a self-chained captive, aware that she should rescue herself by leaving Brussels but unable to forgo the chance of getting through to Heger. By then, her devoirs were her only medium. In the last of the essays that deals with genius, "Letter from a Poor Painter to a Great Lord," she invents a subject much closer to home, a talented painter who has gone abroad to study and is trying to solicit a patron. Often his aspirations correspond to Charlotte's, but the characterization establishes distinctions between the young man and his creator. The "I" of her "Letter" is self-confident, impetuous, defiant, and extreme in thought and action. He refuses to beg for the great lord's patronage,

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claiming that he knows the man's character well enough to recognize his preference for plain facts. He takes two pages to explain why he solicits this patron, rather than another, and spends the next nine on the history of his life and the discovery and pursuit of his vocation. His quest is in the high Romantic mode. He has wandered through the forests of his native country and traveled to Venice, Rome, and Florence. Though poor and sternly disciplined by hardship, he has obtained an education. Most important, he is certain that his soul contains "a few grains of that pure gold which is called Genius." But the writer who endows her persona with such confidence has also been absorbing Heger's precepts. Her painter distinguishes between the gift of genius and the training that is. his responsibility. He distinguishes too between following the vulgar herd-trying to imitate the ways of mediocrity-and striving to emulate the methods of great artists. In several passages marked "G" (for "Good") by Heger, he speaks of the passion and sense of vocation that have enabled him to overcome adversity. After four years of study, he has gained what he desired: "an intimate knowledge of all the technical mysteries of Painting, a taste cultivated in accord with the rules of art." Now, he is ready to use his genius for the benefit of others. 105 In short, as she develops this series of devoirs, Charlotte progresses from naive enthusiasm to a much more thoughtful attitude toward genius. While she still maintains that genius is inspired and inspiring, she speaks with growing frequency of qualifying factors: study, self-discipline, technique, deliberate choices. Heger prompted many of the qualifications. Her life, then and later, reinforced them.

The Limits of Instruction Charlotte Bronte could modify her attitude toward genius, but she could not modify her feelings for Heger or alter the increasingly one-sided bond that kept her chained to an illusion. Heger continued to attend to her devoirs; otherwise, as 1843 wore on, she had to get by with glimpses of her idol and the hope of exchanging a few words with him. Still, she refused to acknowledge his detachment; instead, she focused her rage on his wife. Patricia Beer has said in reference to Charlotte's passion, "If M.

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Heger had not existed, she would have had to invent him." 106 In effect she did invent him or, at least, reconstruct him as the master she was yearning to have. Paradoxically, the extent of her invention has been hidden by the fiction she spun from her experience. No one who knew Heger (including his son Paul) could mistake the source of Villette's Paul Emanuel.1 07 But Charlotte captured the extravagant professor and banished the bourgeois head of household. She also dropped aspects of his teaching from Emanuel, his penchant for maxims, for example. More important, Villette brings out his personal traits and flaws but leaves his teaching practices uncriticized. From the first, Heger struck her as" a man of power as to mind"; 108 the lasting force ofthat conviction precluded any questions about it. Surviving texts-devoirs, dictees, letters, Prize Day speeches-indicate four practices of Heger's that Charlotte would have mocked or protested in anyone but her professor. He edited imperiously, not just student essays, but also the prose of major authors; he reveled in sentiment; he based his teaching on sexist assumptions; and he weighted the readings toward Catholicism. But having determined to regard him as her master, she either ignored these imperfections, accepted them, or found productive ways to cope with them. Apparently, she knew that Heger censored the texts he read his students. In Villette, Lucy Snowe reports that M. Paul "[took] care always to expunge, with the severest hand, whatever passage, phrase, or word, could be deemed unsuited to an audience of 'jeune filles"'; she even praises his ability to fill the gaps by "improvis[ing] whole paragraphs, no less vigorous than irreproachable.... "These substitutions, she suggests, are the price to be paid for the luxury of hearing "current literature. " 109 Heger exercised a similar control in preparing passages to dictate. His dictee from Chateaubriand's The Martyrs omits the line, "Cymodoce in the arms of Hierocles! "-a change that tames the sexual implications of the previous line, "Cymodoce in a place of infamy!" 110 But he could be just as imperious in altering innocuous extracts. In "Evening Prayer on Board a Ship," another dictee from Chateaubriand, he made more than a dozen changes. It is possible that Charlotte mistranscribed a few words or that Heger dictated this part of The Genius of Christianity from memory. Even so, a narrator standing on a ship's deck would not have wit-

/vi

Introduction

nessed sea monsters "astonished" at the sailors' chants and then "plunging to the depth of their caverns." Strictures were looser in the nineteenth century, and Heger was accustomed to making adjustments in any composition before him. Nonetheless, Charlotte's acceptance of this practice suggests that she suspended her critical judgment or let his standards govern her own. Presumably she grew used to this process and, in the long term, even followed his example. As Nancy Armstrong has argued, when Charlotte wrote the preface to Wuthering Heights (and edited Emily's poems after her death) she was packaging her sister's work for a market of Victorian readers. 111 Heger too was packaging literature of value, making it safe or enlivening it for readers not quite ready to accept it in its primal state. His literary tastes have been hailed by Enid Duthie and others as advanced for his period. Certainly, he introduced the Brontes to the French Romantics: Bernardin de Saint-Pierre, Chateaubriand, Nodier, Lamartine, Hugo, Alfred de Musset. But his assignments were not always at that level: Oh why have I no mother? Why, unlike that bird, am I alone? Its nest sways gently in the branches of the elm. Nothing on earth do I own. I had not even a cradle, For I was a child found Before the church of the village, on a stone. 112 This verse from Soumet's poem "The Poor Girl" is not an anomalous dietee. Heger, who distributed bonbons from his pockets, had a frankly sentimental streak. It comes out in a number of his revisions and the comment he appends to a "Letter" of Emily's: "No token of remembrance for papa?" With it went a taste for melodrama. In revising Charlotte's devoirs, he often makes her heavy French more graceful, but he also converts it into prose that an impassioned speaker could declaim. Again, Charlotte seems to have submitted. At most, she demurs by not incorporating all of the revisions he suggests. But she had come to Brussels with a taste for high-flown language that she was not quite ready to curb, and with Heger she did not have to curb it. Ironically, he cured

Introduction

lvii

her of that taste without meaning to, by failing to answer the letters she wrote him in 1843-45. When she finally and bitterly accepted his indifference-'~t last I looked up and saw I prayed to a stone" 113-she lost

her appetite for grandiosity. She may always have objected to his sentimental dictees, but her only known response would come years later, in Shirley, where Caroline Helstone rejects the insipid "little poems" that Hortense Moore makes her read. 114 Charlotte's acquiescence cannot be detached from her attitude toward gender and power. Though she had taken the initiative of going to Brussels and had negotiated funding for the trip through her aunt, she continued to concede to masculine authority, as she had within her juvenilia manuscripts and in her claims about their authorship. 115 She wrote those narratives under male pseudonyms: Wellesley, Tree, Douro, Townshend. Even when she signed her name, she used "C. Bronte" oftener than "Charlotte." At the pensionnat she was writing essays, not romances, and putting her name on every devoir. But she was not yet ready to compose from an explicitly feminine perspective or define her voice as a woman's. "Athens Saved by Poetry" includes a woman speaker-two, since Electra's tale incorporates Cassandra's-but she remains a victim whose role in the narrative is orchestrated by a male poet. Elsewhere, Charlotte's narrators are either male or neutral, insofar as she could keep their voices genderless. The "I" of "The Nest," for example, might be feminine, a stroller in the woods who discovers eggs that hatch, but Charlotte includes no adjectives to mark the speaker's gender; in contrast, "the Atheist" in the same devoir is clearly marked as male. When she does choose women as her subjects, as in "Sacrifice of an Indian Widow" and "Anne Askew," they do not control the discourse; a narrator observes and describes them. Nonetheless, each time Charlotte turned in an essay, she was asserting her ideas. Respecting and even requiring Heger's dominance, she still resolved to show him what a woman could do and win his recognition of her talent. Heger's own attitude toward gender relations was advanced for his time but hardly radical. He believed in education for women and men, but women's education was to serve different purposes. As he wrote to a later student, Margaret Mossman, "It is not desirable for a woman to be

/viii

Introduction

a blue-stocking, but she must be educated. Without education she can neither supervise her children's studies nor share her husband's ideas. Education is a bond between husband and wife-ignorance is a barrier."116 He emphasizes similar aims in a Prize Day speech of 1837, almost certainly delivered at the pensionnat. Girls, he says, need to complete their education, to use the faculties God has given them, to maintain regular habits of work, and to accept their defined role within the family. They are also to obey their masters and their parents, especially the mother who has taught them to love "duty, order, and work. "117 These ideas inform his selection of assignments. Some, like the ones he described to Gaskell, could have been given as readily to male students; others seem tilted toward women. In outlining "The Siege of Oudenarde," for instance, he highlights the women's participation and the threatened execution of the leader's children. Charlotte writes a response sure to please him: the general's wife is worthy of her soldier husband, and the "ladies" of Oudenarde act with an ardor reminiscent of Greek and Roman matrons. In contrast, Emily's matching devoir asserts her defiance of the norms: "Even the women, that class condemned by the laws of society to be a heavy burden in any situation of action and danger, on that occasion cast aside their degrading privileges, and took a distinguished part.... " But if Charlotte still needed to believe she had a master, she did not remain uncritical later. In her reconstruction of Heger as Emanuel, she flays his sexism relentlessly. Paul's seating of Lucy in the corner of an art exhibit, where she is to stare at four paintings of a woman's life,11 8 is not unlike Heger's sending Charlotte off to write about some of his more insipid dictees. It would take her another ten years, however, to liberate the voice of dissent. Meanwhile, at the pensionnat she would have observed that his theory did not dominate his practice. In the Hegers' marriage, both members made decisions; it was evidently a partnership. Zoe Heger worked with visible competence, running the household and the school. In fact, aside from genius, she had what Charlotte wanted: independent means, a companionate marriage, sexual fulfillment, and Heger. 119 Indirectly, Heger's own situation may have influenced his attitude toward Charlotte. Whatever his opinion of bluestockings, he would have perceived that she

Introduction

lix

was not apt to marry, that her livelihood depended on her learning, and that if she longed to become a writer he could do her no good by dissuading her. Instead, he and his wife both attempted to prepare her for a vocation like their own. In this respect, his single fault may have been obtuseness, his own resistance to perceiving the intensity of her emotional attachment. In Villette, Charlotte portrays Madame Beck as the one who keeps Emanuel in thrall to Catholic priests. In fact, Heger was more apt than his wife to have designed the "course of instruction, based on Religion" that the pensionnat's circular advertised. 120 A "profoundly and openly religious" man,121 he allegedly resigned from the Athenee in protest when the state threatened to make religious instruction noncompulsory.122 His own teaching was decisively Catholic. A poetry anthology with many of the poems he taught (which he gave Charlotte to take back to Haworth) bears the imprimatur of the archbishop of Paris. 123 Of the twenty excerpts in her notebook of dictees, six introduce some aspect of religion-evening prayer, morning prayer, the death of a martyr, the capture of Jerusalem, divinely inspired hope, the virtual divinity of kingsand three more are written by clerics. 124 Heger also concentrated on works by the Romantics, but only by those who were religiously correct. Rousseau does not appear in his agenda. Beyond the curriculum, however, he made no attempt to press his beliefs on the Brontes. In the words of an obituary notice, he was "without narrowness or intolerance, having respect for sincere convictions and inquiries made in good faith .... " 125 That respect is demonstrated in his marking of their devoirs. In "Evening Prayer" especially, he tones down Charlotte's prejudice without inflicting views of his own. Villette and Charlotte's letters offer further tribute to the broad-mindedness that went with his religion, 126 a quality the Brontes did not share. But then, nothing in their background could have prepared them for the pensionnat's Catholic and continental ambience. Daughters of an anti-Catholic Anglican clergyman, confirmed in insularity before they left Yorkshire, they had formed their notions of life abroad through literature, journals, and juvenilia fantasies. "The difference in Country & religion makes a broad line of demarcation between us & all the rest," 127

lx

Introduction

Charlotte wrote in her first letter home. They responded to that difference by drawing the line tighter. Their own religion gave them the equipment. Gaskell writes that Charlotte and Emily were "national" whenever they had the opportunity and Protestant always, "to the backbone." 128 Charlotte's work supports these observations: religion plays a major role in nine or ten devoirs and a minor one in half-a-dozen others. In contrast, Emily alludes to religion in only three of her nine surviving devoirs"King Harold before the Battle of Hastings," "Filial Love," and "The Butterfty"-in terms that seem nondenominational. This disparity reflects long-standing differences. Whereas Emily considered religion a matter between herself and God, Charlotte's concern with religion and ethics repeatedly emerges in her writings. A series of letters to Ellen Nussey documents an early crisis of faith, and throughout the juvenilia there are references to Scripture. 129 "She was nourished on the Bible," Heger said to Gaskell,130 and in Brussels she relied on it for arguments, evidence, illustrations, models, and analogies. But the paucity of Emily's religious references does not preclude their importance. In Brussels, religion became for both sisters a means of self-expression, a connection with home, and a language in which they felt confident. Emily's allusions also hint at the tenets she absorbed from Wesleyan Methodism. The conclusion of her essay on the cat, for instance-"undoubtedly [cats] remember always that they owe all their misery and all their evil qualities to the great ancestor ofhumankind"has an antecedent in the preaching of John Wesley: "In the living part of the creation were seen the most deplorable effects of Adam's apostasy. The whole animated creation ... was thereby 'made subject' to such 'vanity' as the inanimate creatures could not be. They were subject to that fell monster, death .... They were made subject to its forerunner, pain.... How many millions of creatures in the sea, in the air, and on every part of the earth, can now no otherwise preserve their own lives than by taking away the lives of others? ... " 131 Wesley also preached that there would be a new creation, an idea whose importance to "The Butterfly" has been partly explored by J. Hillis Miller but remains to be investigated further.132 In these ways and others, Emily's Belgian essays drew her back

Introduction

lxi

to earlier teachings. She may not have appreciated Heger or his orders, but she wrote her convictions into her devoirs and perhaps defined them in doing so.

If Emily's work exhibits traces of Wesleyan and possibly Calvinist doctrine, Charlotte's is more orthodoxly Anglican. Elizabeth Rigby, who attacked lane Eyre as "pre-eminently an anti-Christian composition," 133 would have found little to censure in Charlotte's devoirs, whose pieties befit the clergyman's daughter rather than the pioneering rebel. Occasionally her faith invigorates her imagery: Anne Askew "stretches herself willingly on the bed of torture ... closing her eyes, as if she were going to sleep"; Moses climbs Mount Nebo with a ray of divinity lighting up his "bald brow and ... white hair." Oftener, it leads her into biblical quotations and platitudes. And yet her motives for proclaiming faith in Brussels are similar to those that make Jane Eyre seem "anti-Christian": disgust at "humbug" and contempt for zealots who manipulate others through their dogma. 134 In her novels, such convictions lead her undervalued heroines to acts of self-assertion and defiance. At the pensionnat, they led a defensive Charlotte Bronte to do her most reverential writing. Professing faith was tantamount to guarding her identity. The Bible was her bulwark and her weapon. It also gave her a perceptible advantage over the other students and teachers, since Catholics did not study it as she had. She learned quickly that by using her knowledge, she could earn Heger's respect. In her "Death of Moses," for example, she shows him what an Englishwoman raised on Scripture can do with a celebrated subject. As she probably knew from the books Heger lent her, Moses had become a topic for many religious Romantics. Hugo wrote about his cradle on the Nile, Lamartine wrote of his climb up Mount Sinai, Chateaubriand wrote of his destruction of the tablets, and Vigny wrote of his encounter with God on the summit of Mount Nebo. 135 While Charlotte's devoir may allude to one or more of these texts, 136 its primary source is the Bible. She sweeps through Deuteronomy, 1 and 2 Kings, and Luke, culling names and episodes for her panorama of the patriarch's last hours. Since there are no marks on the surviving version-Gaskell saw another, which did have corrections-Heger's approval can only be assumed from the fact that he kept two copies and exhibited one to illus-

lxii

Introduction

trate what the Bible meant to Charlotte. Elsewhere (as I have noted) he made some attempt to moderate her displays of prejudice. When she wrote of an Egyptian idol "whose brutal image seemed to be the symbol of its worshipers' ignorance," he underlined and then reworked the passage: "[it seemed] to have remained standing only to indicate what the beliefs of the world were, before the coming of J.C." 137 By and large, though, he encouraged her interest in religion, indirectly through his own dedication to his faith and directly through his lectures and assignments. Of course, their creeds clashed, but his exceptional tolerance encouraged her to override the differences; he could write "Good" beside a passage whose theology or politics defied his own convictions. In Charlotte's view, the differences were also offset by their underlying kindred sensibilities. They had in common a belief in moral engagement, in the use of one's faculties, in literature. They shared a love of nature that was sensory and spiritual. The storm, the sunset, and the night sky impressed them-as they impressed the religious Romantics-as natural phenomena to be observed in detail and as symbols of God's transcendent power. 138 Later, she would write exceptional passages about the disclosure of such empathy. "I was conscious of rapport between you and myself," Paul Emanuel declares to Lucy Snowe, "You are patient, and I am choleric; you are quiet and pale, and I am tanned and fiery; you are a strict Protestant, and I am a sort of lay Jesuit: but we are alike-there is affinity.... [I] believe that you were born under my star. " 139 But in Brussels, the rapport between master and student sometimes worked against her progress as a writer. She could not have had a better mentor than Heger when his critical faculties were active. But his weakness for exalted moral statements, for sentimental scenes and lush descriptions, fed her own inclinations toward hyperbole and preaching. And Heger was not the one to curb them. With a curious disregard for his own principles, he often made her phrasing more florid by his editing and so inadvertently signaled his approval of the style she knew she had to give up. She would only abandon it when she accepted the end of her relationship with Heger. Then, illusions gone and anger surging, she mutinied against his kind of prose. She also launched the reconstruction of Heger that her final novel would complete. William Crimsworth of The Profes-

Introduction

lxiii

sor--;~ . · '

"·.

n--~1t tout le firmament brillait de mille feux. L'azur de l'espace empruntait un nouvel eclat de !'atmosphere pure de la saison et des rayons de tous ces luminaires qui le traversaient. Lavoie lactee etait d'une blancheur eblouissante; enfin, comme pour achever le tableau, la lune se leva, majestueuse, et entouree

10

de nuages comme Milton Ia represente; elle montra la nature sous un nouvel aspect; les ombres de la peinture paraissaient plus delicates, les clairs lMti~k~~ plus artistement dispos~s que lorsque le soleil y brillait. Tandis que je contemplais Ia marche de Ia lune, poursuivant son cours parmi les astres, il me vint dans l'esprit une pensee qui a souvent les servi a inquieter d~~ hommes d'un caractere serieux et r~veur. David lui-m~me

15

y fait allusion quand il dit "Lorsque je regarde les cieux,

l'ouvrage de tes doigts, Ia lune et les etoiles que tu as agencees, je dis: 'Qu'est-ce que l'homme mortel, que tu te souviennes de lui; et que le fils de l'homme, que tu le visites?• De

m~me

lorsque je contemplais cette

20

multitude infinie d'astres, ou (pourparler en philosophe) de soleils qui m'eclairaient, lorsque j'elargissais l'idee, et imaginais un autre firmament,

parseme~

de soleils et de mondes au-dessus de celui que nous

voyons, et tous ces mondes eclaires par les luminaires d'un autre firmament, encore plus loin; tandis que je poursuivais cette pensee je ne pouvais pas m'empecher de reflechir sur rna propre insignifiance contrastee avec l'immensite des oeuvres de Dieu. Si le soleil qui eclaire cette partie de l'univers etait anneanti, ainsi

L'lmmensite de Dieu

49

2S

would be no more, in respect to all creation, than if a grain of sand were is 30

removed from the shore. The space they occupy altd so tiny in comparison with the great Whole that their disappearance would scarcely leave a gap. One would perceive no empty space if one could survey the entire universe in a single glance. By tlte &ie ef the teleseepe we E?l And there may exist beings who have this capability; man himself, someday, may

35

attain it. By the aid of the telescope, we see many stars that we could not see with the naked eye, and as the science of optics improves, these discoveries will increase. Huygens is carried away by this idea, so far as to believe that there are stars so distant from the earth that their rays, always in movement from their creation to the present, have not yet

40

arrived at our sphere. Beyond all doubt, the universe has fixed limits but, when we consider that it is the work of an infinite power, ordered by an infinite goodness and possessing unlimited space to exercise its functions, how can our imagination set its bounds?

50

The Immensity of God

que toutle systeme de planetes dont i1 est le centre, ce ne serait a l'egard de toute la creation que comme si on otait un grain de sable de la greve;

30

est

l'espace qu'ils occupent t\ si petitt en comparaison avec le grand Tout qui leur disparition y laisseront a peine une lacune: on ne s'apercevrait pas du vide si on pouvait parcourir tout l'univers d'un seul coup d'oeilPM l'&ide de teleseepe Bees [?] et i1 peut exister des etres qui ont cette

capabilite, l'homme-meme, plus tard, peut y atteindre. Par l'aide du

35

telescope nous voyons plusieurs etoiles qu 'il nous etait impossible de voir de l'oeil seul, eta mesure qu'on perfectionne l'optique ces decouvertes ~tklt

s'augmenteront.- Huygenius se laisse en trainer par cette idee

jusqu'a croire qu'il y a des etoiles tenement eloignees de la terre, que leurs rayons toujours en mouvement depuis leur creation jusqu'a present

40

ne sont pas encore arrives a notre sphere. 11 n'y a pas de doute que l'univers ait des limites fixes mais, lorsque nous considerons que c'est l'ouvrage d'un pouvoir infini, regle par une bonte infinie et possedant unt espace illimite pour exercer ses fonctions, comment notre imagination peut-elle y mettre des homes?

L'lmmensite de Dieu

45

51

Comments

... It is in the unclouded night-sky, where His worlds wheel their silent course, that we read clearest His infinitude, His omnipotence, His omnipresence. I had risen to my knees to pray for Mr. Rochester. Looking up, I, with tear-dimmed eyes, saw the mighty milky-way. Remembering what it was-what countless systems there swept space like a soft trace of light-1 felt the might and strength of God. -JaneEyre1

Read the XIVth Harmony of Lamartine: The Infinite. We will analyze it together.... -C. Heger, May 4

Charlotte Bronte wrote this essay in a notebook, omitting her name and the date. Because the pages were removed and rebound, its position in the sequence of her devoirs can no longer be confirmed. 2 But whether she composed it in May or later, internal and contextual evidence connects it to Heger's advice. Almost certainly, she read "The Infinite" and Lamartine's "Commentary" on it. Then she tried to assimilate their content while retaining a perspective of her own.

52

The poem Heger cites is the fourth, not the fourteenth, in Alphonse de Lamartine's Harmonies poetiques et religieuses (Poetic and religious harmonies), second series (1830); its full title is "L'Infini dans les cieux" (The infinite in the heavens). Lamartine sets this long (216-line) meditation on a starry summer night. Its speaker lets his thoughts "[f]loat like a sea where the moon is cradled," as he contemplates the heavens and the vistas they illuminate. Raising his eyes, he thinks of "suns without number" and the planets that they guide, "revolving in those immensities." He thinks too of man, an" Atom" in the scale of infinity:" ... how he must say to himself, What am I? /Oh! what am I, Lord!" 3 Encountering that question, Charlotte must have recognized its origins in Psalm 8, a psalm of David, for her devoir reproduces the passage almost verbatim from the King James version. Lamartine says elsewhere that he wanted these poems to resemble "modern psalms, like those David had written with his tears," 4 so her replacement follows his intention. She also tends to follow the movement of "The Infinite" from the speaker's vision to a broader meditation, though the tableau of the sunset and night sky are her own, as is the allusion to Milton.5 But Lamartine's question sets the poem on a course from which Charlotte's devoir diverges. His speaker grows oppressed by his reflections on mortality and rescues himself by recalling God's concern for all forms of creation. In contrast, she shifts from a religious to a scientific perspective. No source has yet emerged for her reference to Huygens, the seventeenth-century founder ofthe theory oflight waves;6 perhaps she learned his name in a discussion with Heger, who also gave lessons in arithmetic.7 Primarily, however, she took her cues from Lamartine, who comments on his own poem in these words: "When one thinks that Herschell's telescope has already counted more than five million stars; that each of these stars is a world greater and more important than this earthly globe; that these five million worlds are only the borders of that creation; that, if we were to arrive at the furthest remove, we would perceive from there other gulfs of infinite space, filled with other worlds incalculable, and that this voyage would last myriads of centuries, without our ever being able to arrive at the limits between nothingness and God...."8 What should be made of Charlotte's borrowings? Read without

The Immensity of God

53

awareness of its sources, this devoir attests to her astonishing progress; read with that awareness, it is derivative. Even the sand grains come from Lamartine. 9 Moreover, its indebtedness is complex. Two of Lamartine's objectives for his Harmonies-to show how the natural universe manifests God's wonders and to draw inspiration from "the bards of Israel"reflect the influence of Chateaubriand, whose work he greatly admired. 10 His title echoes Harmonies ofNature, a collection by Bernardin de SaintPierre, whom Charlotte cites years later in Shirley. 11 Bernardin made the word reflets famous; Lamartine brings it into "The Infinite," and Charlotte brings it into her novel. 12 So even if she had studied only Lamartine, she would indirectly have drawn on two more authors. But of course she knew of the others through Heger, who gave her two volumes of Bernardin later, 13 and perhaps through independent reading. Heger too leaves traces of his presence. His "Advice" on "The Nest" uses painterly language, and she portrays the moon here as a consummate artist, skillfully disposing lights and shadows (11-13). More broadly, he believed that scientific knowledge inevitably led to greater faith. As he said in one of his Prize Day speeches, "Thus each step, along the scientific way, is a step toward God; thus the further upstream one moves on science's great river, the more one sees that heaven is its source. " 14 As he said in the other, emulation was essential to the process of acquiring any knowledge. Charlotte was used to appropriating. For the juvenilia, the children borrowed recklessly, imitating everything from dialogue to graphics. The differences in Brussels were that Heger set the terms, that in a foreign language she was not at her ease, and that student work exacted far more discipline. Charlotte could obey, and she could imitate; the challenge was to harmonize what she took from others with her own ideas and modes of expression. "The Immensity of God" takes on that challenge. It compacts Lamartine's ideas into three paragraphs. Its descriptions of the night sky show increasing control of the nuances of poetic French. Charlotte did not always know the French equivalents for images and concepts that she wanted to communicate: artistically, ordained, gap, naked eye. But she got Heger's message about using details to set her main idea in relief. If the shift from a Miltonic moon to optics is surprising, the essay does not

54

The Immensity of God

swerve from its subject. It is also, despite the speaker's claim of insignificance, unswerving in its sense of possibility. Bounds ends this devoir, as it ended "The Nest," but here the punctuation is a question mark. Under the protection of her faith and her professor, she saw no limitations ahead.

The Immensity of God

55

6

May 15th 1842

Emily J. Bronte

The Cat.

I can say with sincerity that I like cats; also I can give very good reasons why those who despise them are wrong. 5

A cat is an animal who has more human feelings than almost any other being.

We cannot sustain a comparison with the dog, it is

infinitely too good; but the cat, although it differs in some physical points, is extremely like us in disposition.

There may be people, in truth, who would say that this resemblance 10

extends only to the most wicked men; that it is limited to their excessive hypocrisy, cruelty, and ingratitude; detestable vices in our race and equally odious in that of cats. Without disputing the limits that those individuals set on our affinity, I answer that if hypocrisy, cruelty, and ingratitude are exclusively the

15

domain of the wicked, that class comprises everyone. Our education develops one of those qualities in great perfection; the others flourish without nurture, and far from condemning them, we regard all three with great complacency.

A cat, in its own interest, sometimes hides its

misanthropy under the guise of amiable gentleness; instead of tearing 20

what it desires from its master's hand, it approaches with a caressing air, rubs its pretty little head against him, and advances a paw whose touch is soft as down. When it has gained its end, it resumes its character of Timon; and that artfulness in it is called hypocrisy. In ourselves, we give it another name, politeness, and he who did not use it to hide his

25

real feelings would soon be driven from society.

"But, • says some delicate lady, who has murdered a half-dozen

56

The Cat

Mai 15!h 1842

Emily J. Bronte

6

Le Chat.

Je puis dire avec sincerite, que j'aime les chats; aussi je sais rendre des tres bonnes raisons, pourquoi c~ux qui les haissent, ont tort. Un chat est un animal qui a plus des sentiments humains que presque

s

tout autre etre. Nous ne pouvons soutenir une comparaison dvec le chien, il est infiniment trop bon: t\lais mais le chat, encore qu'il diftere en quelques points physiques, est extremement semblable

a nous

en

disposition 11 peut etre des gens, en verite, qui diraient que cette ressemblance ne

10

lui approche qu'aux hommes les plus mechants; qu'elle est bornee a son exces d'hypocrisie, de cruaute, et d'ingratitude; vices detestables dans notre race et egalement odieux en celle des chats. Sans disputer les limites que ces individus mettent anotre affinite, je reponds, que si l'hypocrisie, le cruaute et !'ingratitude sont exclusive-

IS

ment la propriete des mechants, cette classe renferme tout le monde; notre education developpe une de ces qualites en grande perfection, les autres fleurissent sans soins, et loin de les condamner, nous regardons tous les trois, avec beaucoup de complaisance. Un chat, pour son interet propre cache quelquefois sa mis::mthropie sous une apparence de douceur

20

tres aimable; au lieu d'arracher ce qu'il desire de la main de son maitre il s'approche d'un air caressant, frotte sa jolie petite tete contre lui, et avance une patte dont la touche est douce comme le duvet. Lorsqu'il est venu

a bout,

il reprend son caractere de Timon, et cette finesse est

nommee l'hypocrisie en lui, en nous memes, nous lui donnons un autre nom, c'est la politesse et celui qui ne l'employait pas pour deguiser ses vrais sentimen•s serait bient6t chasse de societe. "Mais, • dit quelque dame delicate, qui a meurtri une demi-douzaine

Le Chat

57

2S

lapdogs through pure affection, "the cat is such a cruel beast, he is not content to kill his prey, he torments it before its death; you cannot make that accusation against us. • More or less, Madame. Your husband, for 30

example, likes hunting very much, but foxes being rare on his land, he would not have the means to pursue this amusement often, if he did not manage his supplies thus: once he has run an animal to its last breath, he snatches it from the jaws of the hounds and saves it to suffer the same infliction two or three more times, ending finally in death. You yourself

35

avoid a bloody spectacle because it wounds your weak nerves. But I have seen you embrace your child in transports, when he came to show you a beautiful butterfly crushed between his cruel little fingers; and at that moment, I really wanted to have a cat, with the tail of a halfdevoured rat hanging from its mouth, to present as the image, the true

40

copy, of your angel.

You could not refuse to kiss him, and if he

scratched us both in revenge, so much the better. Little boys are rather liable to acknowledge their friends' caresses in that way, and the resemblance would be more perfect. The ingratitude of cats is another name for penetration. They know how to value our favors at their true 45

price, because they guess the motives that prompt us to grant them, and if those motives might sometimes be good, undoubtedly they remember always that they owe all their misery and all their evil qualities to the great ancestor of humankind. For assuredly, the cat was not wicked in Paradise.

58

The Cat

de bichons par pure affection, "le chat est une bete si cruelle, il ne se contente pas de tuer sa proie, il Ia tourmente avant sa mort; vous ne

30

pouvez faire cette accusation contre nous. • A peu pres Madame - monsieur votre marl, par exemple, aime beaucoup Ia chasse; mais les renards etant rares dans sa terre, il n'aurait pas le moyen de prendre cette amusement souvent, s'il ne manageait point ses materiaux ainsi, lorsqu'il a couru un animal a son demier soupir, ille tire des gueules des chiens,

3S

et le reserve pour souffrir encore deux ou trois fois Ia meme infliction, terminant finalement en Ia mort. Vous evitez vous-meme un spectacle sanglant, parce qu 'il blesse vos faibles nerfs; mais j 'ai vous vue embrasser avec transport votre enfant, quand il venait vous montrer un beau papillon ecrase entre ses cruels petits doigts; et, ace moment, j'ai voulu

40

bien avoir un chat, avec Ia queue d'un rat demi-englouti, pendant de sa bouche, a presenter comme l'image, Ia vraie copie, de votre ange; vous ne pourriez refuser de le baiser, et s'il nous egratignait tous deux en revanche, tant mieux, les petits garcons sont assez liables a reconnaitre ainsi, les caresses de leurs amis, et Ia ressemblance serait plus parfaite.

4S

L'ingratitude des chats est un autre nom pour Ia penetration. lis savent estimer nos faveurs aleur juste prix, parce qu'ils devinent les motifs qui nous poussent de leur donner, et si ces motifs puissent quelquefois etre bons, sans doute ils se souviennent toujours, qu'ils doivent toutes leurs miseres et toutes leurs mauvaises qualites au grand aieul du genre humain. Car, assurement, le chat n'etait pas mechant en Paradis

LeChat

59

so

[Two extracts from one of Charlotte Bronte's notebooks]

Plea for Cats The cause of cats is, I admit, sirs, harder to defend. In general one has a poor opinion of their character, and their claws have made them many enemies. But still justice should be done. If cats are wicked, we are not 5

very good. Laura! my hat! my walking stick! my gloves! I have to go out. I walked three hours, then I slept nine Come with me, presently; -

no, impossible now

The Two Dogs 10

A good husband's indulgence toward his wife. Among other presents, a puppy that he brings her. Detail what it symbolizes; his kindness. The caresses and attention of which Bijou is the object; how he deserved them; here describe his little talents. Tell how he grows ugly in growing up; how his limbs enlarge. The signs he shows of being a big sheepdog.

15

Madam's disgust for him; the rebuffs he suffers, the caresses with which he confronts this ill treatment. Clumsy, for that is what she calls him now, banished to the yard; his degradation; detail his privations, the change in food and company.

Philosophic reflections to be put in

Clumsy's mouth; he can no longer be delicate; his ugliness has cost him 20

dear; destiny is fickle for everyone; wisdom and courage. Grounds for consolation -a pretty poodle given to Madame by her husband. Describe the delicacy of all parts of her body.

Zephyrette, a well-bred dog,

placed above all animals of her kind; her agility, playfulness - good heart. 25

The summer spent in the country; people of the house asleep; two robbers letting themselves in through the garden. Paint their advance with the dread that crime inspires; the fear that the night, the moonlight,

60

The Cat

[Charlotte Bronte]

[1842?]

Plaidoyer pour les chats La cause des chats est, je l'avoue, messieurs, plus difficile Adefendre. On a generalement mauvaise opinion de leur caractere, et leurs griffes leur ont fait beaucoup d'ennemis; mais il faudrait aussi se rendre justice. Si les chats sont mechants, nous ne sommes pas tres bons.

5

Laure! mon chapeau! ma cannel roes gants! je dois sortir J'ai marche trois heures puis j'en ai dormi neuf Viens avec moi, tant6t; -

non, maintenant impossible

Les deux chiens Complaisance d'un bon marl pour sa femme. entre autres presents jeune

10

chien qu'il lui apporte; detailler de quoi - il est le symbole; sa gentillesse; les caresses et les soins dont Bijou est l'objet; comment il les meritait, decrire ici ses petits talents; dire comment il enlaidit en grandissant; ses membres qui grossissent. indices qu'il offre d'un gros chien de troupeau; degout de madame pour lui, rebuts qu'il en eprouve caresses qu'il oppose

a ces

15

mauvais traitements. Pataud c'est ainsi

qu'elle le nomme maintenant, chasse a Ia cour; sa degradation; detailler ses privations le changement de nourriture et de compagnie; reflexions philosophiques ltl'ti\ qu'on mettra dans Ia bouche de Pataud; il ne doit plus etre delicat; sa laideur lui coute cher; le destin est inconstant pour tout

20

le monde; sagesse et courage. motifs de consolation - jolie bar[b]ette donnee aMadame par monsieur; decrire la finesse de toutes les parties de son corps - Uphyrette chienne accomplie mise au-dessus de tous les animaux de son espece, legerete espieglerie - bon coeur. L'ete passe

a la campagne;

sommeil des gens de Ia maison; deux

voleurs s'introduisant par le jardin; peindre leur marche- dans la crainte qu'inspire le crime; effroi que la nuit, le clair de lune, le bruit des

Le Chat

61

25

the sound of the leaves excites in them; paint Clumsy's attention and the whole attitude and actions of a dog who hears a noise; his fury. Here 30

you will describe the combat that takes place between the dog and the robbers, one of them armed with a knife; the victory going to Clumsy despite his wounds.

Awakening, alarm, arrival of everyone and of

Zephyrette. Describe the spectacle of the battlefield, the men, and the dying animal; caresses given to the burglars by Zephyrette. At that sight 35

the master's regret over his conduct toward Clumsy and the preference given to the thankless Zephryette; the repentence he expresses; caresses and last breath of the dying Clumsy. Moral on the scheming flatterer and the man of merit.

62

The Cat

feuilles excitent en eux; peindre }'attention de Pataud et toute }'attitude et les actions d'un chien qui entend du bruit, sa fureur lei on decrira le combat qui s'engage entre

le~ chien~

et les voleurs, dont l'un est arme

30

d'un glaive; victoire restant lt Pataud malgre ses blessures; reveille, alarme, arrivee de tout le monde et de Zephyrette; decrire le spectacle du champ de bataille, les hommes, et I'animal mourantt caresses faites par Zephyrette aux voleurs; lt cette vue regret du maitre sur sa conduite envers Pataud et la preference donnee lt !'ingrate Zephyrette, repentir qu'il exprime; caresses et demier soupir de Pataud expirant, moral sur le flatteur intriguant et l'homme de merite

Le Chat

63

35

Comments

This is the first of Emily Bronte's devoirs or at least the earliest survivor (she probably wrote others, long since lost, in the four months that she had been in Brussels). But whatever its place in the series of her devoirs, "The Cat" is a singular essay. If, as Charlotte alleges, Emily came to Belgium with only a rudimentary knowledge of French, she made all but incredible progress. 1 She also learned while keeping compliance to a minimum, unlike her more submissive sibling. Manifest in almost every line here is resistance: to conventional notions about animals and humans, to the expectations of her sentimental teacher, and to the very language she was using. Emily entrenches her essay in Englishness, and not just through its fox-hunting landowner. She looks for French equivalents of English words-"par pure affection," "lorsqu'il a couru un animal," "a son dernier soupir," and so forth-rather than for corresponding idioms. Her spelling tends to be more accurate than Charlotte's, and she is less likely to leave out accents, perhaps because she used a dictionary. But she ignores or even defies French sentence order, as if accommodation would change what she was thinking or alter the process of her mind. How much autonomy did Heger's lessons give her? In his interview

64

with Gaskell, he declared that he always left the choice of subject to his students. But the point of choice came after he presented a text or model, lectured, and provided instructions. Those instructions might be loose or rigorous. Their range is suggested by the two excerpts I have taken from one of Charlotte's notebooks. 2 "Plea for Cats" seems to be Charlotte's attempt to launch a devoir on the same topic; "The Two Dogs" seems to be a transcript of Heger's instructions for a corresponding devoir. In the first case, the title implies his assignment: defend cats against those who dislike them. Heger could have prefaced the assignment with a reading (one possibility is cited below), but the sisters would have had considerable latitude in structuring and writing their essays. In contrast, "The Two Dogs" would have locked the writer into a format as well as an attitude. It is not atypical; Heger often dictated matiere for his students to develop.3 But neither sister seems to have worked with this outline, which Emily-the owner of a large fierce mastiff, Keeper-could only have regarded with contempt. 4 If she reacted, she did so surreptitiously, by ruthlessly mocking the respectable ambience that "The Two Dogs" implicitly endorses. (Five years later, in The Professor, Charlotte gave the name Zephyrine to a teacher "more distinguished in appearance and deportment" than her colleagues "but in character, a genuine Parisian coquette, perfidious, mercenary and dry-hearted.") 5 Syntax and vocabulary errors conceded, Emily's views emerge with startling clarity. She makes no attempt to mouth traditional pieties or engage in the give and take of dialogue. She inserts a protest from a "delicate lady," but the answer cuts off further exchange. She argues through examples that display her scorn of orthodoxies, social as well as pietistic. Her approach, in the words of the critic John Hewish, is "characteristically sardonic ... the first statement in prose of her romantic misanthropy, pessimism, and dislike of convention."6 There are, however, precedents for some of her ideas, as well astraditions to which they are not foreign. John Wesley preached that animals shared in Adam's fall and expulsion from paradise, and Emily's conclusion echoes that tenet, which she could have learned in childhood from her Aunt Branwell (who, like her mother, had been raised as a Methodist) or from local evangelicals.? She also seems aware of the conventions of satire, and perhaps of the seventeenth-century character.8

The Cat

65

More immediately, the essay may respond to a French text such as Buffon 's Natural His tory. One of Charlotte's note books includes a dictee from the opening of his chapter on the horse, 9 and if Heger gave his students one Buffon passage, he might have gone back for another. These lines, from a late-eighteenth-century translation, begin the chapter Buffon calls "Le chat": The cat is an unfaithful domestic, and kept only from the necessity we find of opposing him to other domestics still more incommodious, and which cannot be hunted; for we value not those people, who, being fond of all brutes, foolishly keep cats for their amusement. Though these animals, when young, are frolicksome and beautiful, they possess, at the same time, an innate malice, and perverse dispositions, which increase as they grow up, and which education learns them to conceal, but not to subdue. From determined robbers, the best education can only convert them into flattering thieves; for they have the same address, subtlety, and desire of plunder.... They easily assume the habits of society, but never acquire its manners; for they have only the appearance of attachment or friendship. This disingenuity of character is betrayed by the obliquity of their movements, and the duplicity of their eyes. They never look their best benefactor in the face; but, either from distrust or falseness, they approach him by windings, in order to procure caresses, in which they have no other pleasure than what arises from flattering those who bestow them. Very different from that faithful animal the dog, whose sentiments totally centre in the person and happiness of his master, the cat appears to have no feelings which are not interested, to have no affection that is not conditional, and to carry on no intercourse with men, but with the view of turning it to his own advantage. By these dispositions, the cat has a greater relation to man than to the dog, in whom there is not the smallest mark of insincerity or injustice.10 No direct proof exists that Heger taught this passage or that Emily knew of its existence. Still, the corresponding details mount up: duplic-

66

TheCat

ity, cruelty, self-interested flattery, and perhaps most tellingly, the temperament that makes cats resemble humans rather than dogs. Also manifest in Emily's pages is resistance to attitudes like Buffon's. He disdains people foolish enough to care for a creature so ineducable; she defends her liking for cats on the grounds of their intractability. His anthropomorphism implicitly confirms the chain of being that sets people above animals. Hers not only challenges the primacy of humans, it exposes their beastliness and folly. In short, this is writing that transgresses codes of syntax, politeness, hierarchy, family sentiment, and discourse appropriate to young ladies. Heger's response to it can only be guessed, since no corrections appear on her pages. Pretty clearly, however, he made no attempt to muffle the voice that spoke so trenchantly and plainly.

TheCat

67

7

Emily J. Bronte

The Siege of Oudenarde

Outside the walls of Oudenarde was camped an army of 30,000 Ghents; within, the garrison was weak in numbers but strong in that spirit of

s

noble dedication which equally inspires the true patriot and the martyr. Even the women, that class condemned by the laws of society to be a heavy burden in any situation of action and danger, on that occasion cast aside their degrading privileges, and took a distinguished part in the work of defense. Still there was one heart, among those men so brave

10

and faithful, one traitor's soul low enough to weigh a handful of gold in the balance against the independence of his country. That wretch found the means to seize the two sons of Commander Lalaing, and he delivered them to the enemy at a moment when its patience was starting to run out and its energy to weaken. The Ghents, joyful at this prize, led the

15

children within sight of their father and announced that either the town must surrender at once, or the boys would die. It rested with Lalaing to pronounce theif sentence; his refusal would be the signal for their death. The commander regarded his sons, whose eyes, filled with tears, implored his help. At their side he saw the soldiers armed with glaives who would

20

end their days. For a moment he hesitated; nature wrestled strongly with honor; his breast swelled with a terrible emotion. But finally the patriot subdued the father; he turned to face the Ghents: "Take, • said he, "the life of these poor children. I cannot weigh it against the liberty of my country, and as for their souls, I entrust them to God. My sentence is

25

pronounced. • The enemy, struck by this response, recoiled from a useless crime. A short time after, help arrived and Oudenarde was saved. most vaunted

In this act, the Flemish general appears as great as the gfefttest heroes

68

The Siege of Oudenarde (EB)

7

Emily J. Bronte

Le Siege d'Oudenarde.

Dehors les murs d'Oudenarde campait une armee de 30 000 Gltentois, en dedans la garnison etait faible en nombre mais forte dans cet esprit de noble devouement qui inspire egalement le vrai patriote et le martyre.

5

Meme les femmes, cette classe condamnee par les lois de la societe, d'etre un lourd fardeau en tout cas d'action et de danger, sur cette occasion, mettaient a cOte leurs privileges degradants, et prenaient une part distinguee dans les travaux de defense. Cependant il y avait un coeur, parmi ces hommes si braves et

fid~les,

un arne de traitre, assez

10

basse pour peser une poignee d'or dans la balance contre l'independance de son pays; cet miserable trouvait de moyens as'emparer des deux fils

a l'ennemi au moment ou son patience commencait a s'epuiser et son energie a s'affaibler. Les Gltentois joyeux de cette prise amenaient les enfants ala vue de leur pere du commandant Lalaing, et les liverait

15

et annoncaient que, ou la ville capitulerait toute-suite, ou les garcons mouriraient, il restait avec Lalaing aprononcer letH' sentence, son refus serait le signal de leur mort. Le commandant regardait ses fils dont les yeux pleins de larmes implorait son secours,

a leurs cOtes il voyait les

soldats armes des glaives qui devraient finir leurs jours; un moment il

20

hesitait, la nature luttait fortement avec l'honneur - son sein gonflait d'une emotion terrible, mais enfin le patriote subjugait le pere, il se toumait vers les Gltentois; "prenez, dit il "la vie de ces pauvres enfants, pas

je ne puis " la balancer contre la liberte de rna patrie, et pour leurs ames je les confie aDieu. Mon sentence est prononce." L'ennemi frappe de cette reponse, reculait devant un crime inutile. Peu de temps apres des secours arrivaient et Oudenarde etait sauvee. Dans ce trait le general flamand apparait aussi grand que les p

Le Siege d'Oudenarde (EB)

69

25

that history has preserved for our admiration, ftftd the men who could 30

leap with Martius Curtius into a living tomb are more numerous than those who, like Lalaing, could sacrifice the tenderest affections of the heart for the love of their country_ _ __

70

The Siege of Oudenarde (EB)

vant~s

heros les plus gt'ftfttls que l'histoire a conservit pour notre admiration,

~

les hommes qui pourraient sauter avec Martius Curtius dans une tombe vivante sont plus nombreux que ceux qui pourraient sacrifier l&~ comme Lalaing les plus tendres affections du leur coeur pour l'amour de leur patrie_ _ __

Le Siege d'Oudenarde (EB)

71

30

8

C Bronte

The Siege of Oudenarde had The general of the Ghentish army

h.a~ just

summoned the town of Oude-

narde; he offered its inhabitants the terms of peace. He promised to

s

respect their rights and to restrain the license of his troups, he desired of their town only that they give him the key to the gates "' and that they recognize him as their conqueror. But the courage of the citizens of Oudenarde was not yet weakened, nor their forces exhausted by the long siege they had endured. Their commanding officer, Simon de Lalaing, was a brave and

10

loyal man, and he communicated heroism and steadfastness to all around continue him. Hence he refused to accept the Ghents' offers and prepared to effef the ltffsiM ft resolute and indomitable resistance that he had so far" to the beseigers' efforts.

15

The garrison under his orders was small in number but devoted; the men Hth.ab\lalth of the town shared their leader's sentiments; the women shared them equally, and Madame Lalaing especially showed herself being the wife worthy of h.tk h.tt~baltll of a soldier. Under her auspices all the ladies of Oudenarde, animated by an ardor like that which a common danger

20

formerly inspired in Greek and Roman matrons, took part in the work of Thus defense~ The town \h.tt~ lltftltllta seemed impregnable; all the efforts of the Ghents were useless; but at last, as they recognized that force could not succeed, they decided to employ stratagem. A traitor (perhaps the only one in the town of Oudenarde) surrendered the two sons of the Count of Lalaing to them. The count was summoned to a meeting; his

25

two sons were brought before him; he was informed that if he still refused to yield, his children would be sacrificed to the sword. The count saw them surrounded by rude and savage Ghents. He saw their terror, their tears, their hands joined and raised to him as if to entreat

72

The Siege ofOudenarde (CB)

C Bronte

8

Le siege d'Oudenarde venait Le general de l'armee Ghentoise \riltft\ de sommer la ville d'Oudenarde, i1 offrait aux habitants des conditions de paix - i1 promettait de respecter

leurs droits et de reprimer la licence de ses troupes, seulement i1 voulait de leur ville le qu'on lui donnut les clefs des portes "'et qu'on lUi reconnut pour leur

5

vainqueur. Mais le courage des habitants d'Oudenarde n'etait pas encore affaibli ni leurs forces epuisees par le long siege qu'ils avaient soutenu - leur comandant Simon de Lalaing etait un homme brave et fidele et i1 communiquait de l'heroisme et de la fidelite a tou\s ceux qui l'environ-

10

naient- i1 refusa done d'accepter les offres des Ghentois et se prepara continuer Ia Otiek\~ de f&ife 'lifte resistance resolue et indomptable que jusqu 'ici illeur avait"' aux efforts des assiegeants La garnison sous ses ordres etait peu nombreuse mais devouee, les hommes ltalti\alt\~ de la ville partageaient les sentiments de leur chef -les femmes

15

les partageaient egalement et surtout ~lt\mlta Madame de Lalaing se mond' 6tre Ia femme trait digne de ~lta\maki d'un soldat. Sous ses auspices toutes les dames d'Oudenarde animees d'une ardeur semblable

a celle

qu'un danger

commun inspirait autrefois aux matrones grecques et romaines, prirent Ainsi part aux travaux de defense-:- La ville ltltiitalUt\aia~i semblait imprenable,

20

tous les efforts des Ghentois etaient inutiles, mais enfin ~' comme ils curent s'aperee'+'&ieBt que la force ne pouvait pas y reussir; ils s'aviserent d'employer le stratageme -

Un traitre (le seul peutetre dans la ville

d'Oudenarde) leur livra les deux fils du Comte de Lalaing- On appelait le comte a une conference, on amena ses deux fils

a sa vue on l'avertit

que s'il refusa encore de ceder ses enfants serait immoles par le glaive. vit vit Le comte les \rltyai\ entoures des Ghentois rudes et farouches, i1 \rltyai\ leur frayeur, leurs larmes, leurs mains joints et levees vers lui comme

Le siege d'Oudenarde (CB)

73

25

deliver him to save them. He even heard their feeble cries from afar, and the 30

words, "Father, father, come and help us!" Tlte A frightful struggle rent his heart; for some moments he said not a word. He covered his eyes with his hands and pressed his brow against the battlements; before long he stood upright. His face was pale, and his lips livid. He replied in a voice firm and resonant, "Gkelti "Let my children die, God will

35

take them to his breast; for myself I have only one duty to fulfill, it is to remain faithful to my country. Ghents, I am not vanquished, begone!"

The enemy recoiled from a useless crime, the allies of Oudenarde sent help in time to release Lalaing from his perious position, and the 40

town was saved.

Ancient history does not present us with a nobler

example of dedication than that which Simon Lalaing offers us here. had opened Marcus Curtius, hurling himself into the gaping pit that epeHeti in the middle of the forum, was not impelled by a courage more sublime than the commander of Oudenarde, sacrificing his feelings as a father to his 45

principles as a patriot.

74

The Siege ofOudenarde (CB)

delivrer

pour le supplier a les saut~k - meme il entendit de loin leurs cris faibles - et les mots "mon pere, mon pere venez nous aider.•

Us Un combat

30

affreux dechirait son coeur pendant quelques instants il ne disait pas mot - il couvrit les yeux de ses mains et appuya son front sur les crenaux de

Ia muraille bientot il se releva - sa figure etait pile, et ses levres livides - il repondit d'une voix ferme et sonore

"&h~lt\

"Que mes enfants

meurent Dieu les recevra dans son sein, pour moi je n'ai qu'un devoir a remplir, c'est de rester fidele vaincu~.

a rna

35

patrie - Ghentois je ne suis pas

eloignez-vous•

L'ennemi recula devant un crime inutile les allies d'Oudenarde envoyerent des secours

a temps

de degager Lalaing de sa position

perilleuse, et Ia ville fut sauvee. L'histoire ancienne ne nous presente

40

pas un plus noble ~kp exemple de devouement que celui que nous offre ici Simon Lalaing -Marcus Curtius s'elanc;ant dans le gouffre beant qui s'6tait ouvert

s!etwfit au milieu du Forum n'etait pas anime d'un courage plus sublime que le commandant d'Oudenarde sacrifiant ses sentiments comme pere a ses principes comme patriote.

Le siege d'Oudenarde ( CB)

45

75

Comments

Mystery surrounds these devoirs. Neither one is dated, though the level of the French and the numerous corrections in Charlotte's manuscript suggest that they are early productions. Few historians would recognize their subject, a fifteenth-century siege that lasted less than two weeks, or the regional hero who, at least in Heger's version, surpassed Rome's Marcus Curtius in bravery. Nobody knows how the essays traveled from the pensionnat to a collector with no other Bronte manuscripts and then to a college library in Swarthmore, Pennsylvania. 1 Their origins, however, can be partly reconstructed: Heger gave instructions, probably in class, and the Bronte sisters dutifully responded. From evidence still extant, his motives and his sources can also be inferred. Within a list of subjects that Heger was to teach at the Athe nee Royal in 1842, there is this notation under "History": "some account of the great men of antiquity and of those who made Belgium renowned. "2 Belgium had become a nation only twelve years prior to the Brontes' arrival, but Heger could have drawn on regional histories and then compared local with classical heroes. Once prepared, he could also have adapted the boys' lessons to an audience of girls at the pensionnat. These devoirs support such conjectures. Both configure topics in a

76

similar pattern: the setting of the siege, the women's contribution, the treachery, the tempting of the father, his response, and the closing Marcus Curti us allusion. This patterning suggests that Heger outlined the material and asked his students to fill in the details, as he did when he dictated the matiere for the essays on the palace of Death. Here, though, the subject comes from history, not legend. There was a siege of Oudenarde in 1452, and Simon de Lalaing led the resistance. Oudenarde (or Audenarde) is in East Flanders, about thirty-eight miles from Brussels; in that era, it was part of Brabant. The town of Ghent, then as now part of Flanders, is some seventeen miles from Oudenarde. Since 1384, Flanders had been under control of the dukes of Burgundy. In 1430 Philip the Good, the reigning duke, was chosen by the Brabanc;ons to be their ruler, and in 1440 he took Bruges. Thus until1477, when Philip's son, Charles the Bold, was killed in battle, the Burgundians governed all the regions that would later be unified as Belgium. Most citizens welcomed Philip's leadership. Under his rule the cloth industry flourished, shipping ports expanded, and prosperity spread. But Ghent, which had maintained a separate constitution and took pride in its status as an independent city, revolted against Burgundy in 1450, and when in the spring of 1452 Ghentish soldiers threatened to attack the town of Oudenarde, Philip sent Lalaing to the rescue. Lalaing was the younger son of a nobleman as well as a Knight of the Golden Fleece, an order Philip had created. A seasoned warrior, he had fought in Cypress, in Paris against Joan of Arc, in England and Scotland, and throughout the continent before being sent to Oudenarde.3 Hearrived there with his wife and menage-sixty lancers and two hundred archers, by one account4-and started preparing for a siege. The Ghents set out for Oudenarde on April14; Lalaing held them off until April27, when they were defeated in a battle beyond the walls by allies whom Philip had dispatched. Heger did not have to read late-medieval chronicles to get this information on Oudenarde. In the 1820s Guillaume de Barante issued his Histoire des dues de Bourgogne. A classic of Romantic historiography,5 it was reprinted in Brussels in 1838 and again in 1839-40. Barante believed in bringing out the story of events, and from the seven columns he wrote about this siege, Heger could have culled half-a-dozen episodes. The

The Siege of Oudenarde

77

Ghents, for example, shot arrows across the walls with messages attached in French and English that "reminded" Lalaing ofthe money he had been paid to deliver the town to their forces. 6 Had Heger been teaching the boys at the Athenee, he might also have expounded on the general's countertactics, such as placing vats of water in the streets to douse the Ghents' red-hot cannonballs.7 But, as Heger must have realized, he was teaching young women with a negligible interest in warfare. It was nonetheless his duty to give future wives and mothers some grounding in events within their area, to make them familiar with great men close to home as well as with the heroes of antiquity. So he looked for details that would hold their attention, and then he dramatized the story further. According to Barante and other published chronicles, "The lord of Lalaing had lefttwo children in Hainaut. The Ghents looked for two boys of the same size and almost the same appearance; they led them to the rampart and cried from afar to the captain and his wife, who was there bringing stones to the wall, that they had just seized the children on a journey to Hainaut, and that they were going to put them to death if the town did not surrender. They counted on the mother's fondness and the knight's weakness. But Lalaing aimed the cannons' muzzles at that very spot, and ordered his men to fire harder. " 8 Another account adds that he staked out his banner with the motto "Let all perish, save honor!" 9 but no version extant departs from Barante on the matter of the substitute children. The plot that Heger outlined for his students was history converted to fiction. The Bronte sisters worked with it in characteristic ways, Emily rendering the details tersely, with the logic that Heger would later remark

°

on, 1 Charlotte paying less attention to form and more to human interest and imagery. Emily goes swiftly through her narrative, detouring only to scorn the social code that disables the women it privileges. Charlotte amplifies the spectacle of anguish; she lingers on the children pleading for deliverance and the father struggling to control himself. Emily's siege progresses through a series of antitheses: the vast Ghentish army and the few inside the walls, a traitor weighing gold against the town's independence, Lalaing's human nature contending against honor, and the foe's retreat preceding the arrival of new allies. Her Lalaing decrees a sentence

78

The Siege of Oudenarde

that will lead to separation of the sire from his sons and the boys' souls from their bodies. In contrast, Charlotte's siege is a communal enterprise, with Lalaing as the leader, his wife a worthy helpmate, and all but the traitor contributing. Implicitly, her version approves the hierarchies that this structure of community imposes. Her Lalaing envisions God receiving the boys and himself remaining loyal to his country, his duty to the fatherland outranking on principle the passion of a father for his children. Emily's version, spare though it is, implies a different vision of loyalty, one in which valiant individuals join forces and a commander sacrifices ruthlessly to guard the independence of his homeland. It is tempting to read Emily's insistence on liberty into her approach to French. Though her spelling is actually better than her sister's, her syntax remains staunchly English. Of course, inexperience alone might account for the number of lines that appear to be transliterated and for the style that one modern Belgian reader terms oral (parte) rather than written.11 Whatever the reasons, she seems unconcerned with nuance, whereas Charlotte clearly struggles to make her French fluent and to better her phrasing through revision. The sheer number of corrections, all in Charlotte's handwriting, suggests that she drafted her devoir as she thought it out and then rechecked its phrasing and grammar. Neither sister pays more than cursory attention to the Marcus Curtius legend. 12 Charlotte makes an earlier allusion to antiquity, comparing Oudenarde's women to Greek and Roman matrons, but she has little to say about the hero whose bravery is fatal. (In 362 B.c. a chasm opened in the center of the Forum; seers declared that it would continue to gape until Rome's most valued possession was thrown into it. Understanding that nothing was worth more than a brave citizen, the noble Marcus Curtius leaped into the pit, which immediately closed on him.) 13 Perhaps the desire to finish writing accounts for her conciseness; perhaps Roman heroism interested her less than the drama of a father in conflict. In any case, Emily and Charlotte react when the domestic and the military intersect, when women become unconventionally useful, and when courage takes the form of self-mastery.

The Siege of Oudenarde

79

9

June 2nd. 1842

Charlotte Bronte

Anne Askew Imitation

of Eudorus /

In the reign of Mary, Queen of England, a young woman named Anne 5

Askew was to be put to the torture because she did not want to renounce the Protestant religion and profess the Catholic faith. The fatal day has arrived.

In the evening she must suffer her

punishment, and already the sun has set. Anne is all alone in her cell; she is seated on a pallet; her eyes are lowered; she is mute and still, like 10

an image carved in marble.

Through the iron grate that closes the

window, the moon can be seen. Its disk is cut in sections by the black bars, but a few rays penetrate the darkness and glow upon the form of the young captive. Anne is motionless, voiceless, her tongue is frozen in her mouth. 15

Nonetheless her soul cries out - she feels the sting of death in her heart, and she prays as Jesus Christ prayed in the garden of Gethsemane,

•o

my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me! • A bell sounds. The noise of steps and voices is heard, the prison door opens and the torturer enters, followed by his satellites. Anne lifts 20

her eyes for a moment. Then she turns her head as if she wanted to seek some refuge, some defense. But there is no longer any refuge for her on

earth, and the somber vault of her prison hides the heavens from her. The torturer begins his preparations.

His satellites, obeying his

orders conveyed more by signs than words, set up the instrument of 25

torture. Next, approaching the victim, they remove her veil and cut off her long blond locks; soon the dark, dank paving-stone is all bestrewn with ringlets of gold. Anne does not resist; just like a lamb, mute before the shearer, she does not open her mouth. Her arms are bound with

80

Anne Askew

Charlotte Bronte

Le 2 Juin 1842

9

Anne Askew Imitation

de Eudore /

Sous le regne de Marie, reined' Angleterre, une jeune fille nommee Anne Askew allait etre menee au supplice, parce qu'elle ne voulait pas renon-

s

cer a la religion protestante et professer la croyance catholique. Le jour fatal est arrive, le soir elle doit subir sa punition et le soleil

s'est deja couche. Anne est toute seule dans sa cellule, elle est assise sur une paillasse, ses yeux sont baisses, elle est muette et immobile comme un image taillee en marbre.

A. travers la grille, dont la fenetre est

10

fermee, on voit la lune, son disque est entrecoupe par les barres noires, mais quelque rayons penetrent l'obscurite et reluisent sur la forme de la jeune captive. Anne est sans mouvement, sans voix sa langue est glacee dans sa bouche- cependant son !me erie- elle sent l'aiguillon de la mort dans

lS

son coeur et elle prie comme pria Jesus Christ dans le jardin de Gethsemane •Mon

que cette coupe passe loin de moi s'il est possible!• de Une cloche sonne, on entend le bruit de pas et " voix, Ia porte du P~re

prison s'ouvre et le bourreau entre, suivi de ses satellites. Anne leve les yeux pour un instant, puis elle toume la tete comme si elle voulait

20

chercher quelque asile, quelque defense, mais il n'y a plus d'asile pour elle sur la terre, et la voute sombre de sa prison lui cache les cieux. Le bourreau commence ses preparations, ses satellites, obeissant a ses ordres communiques par des signes plut6t que par des paroles, dressent l'instrument de torture, alors ils s'approchent de la victime la depouillent de sa voile, et lui coupent ses longs cheveux blonds, bient6t le pave noir et humide est tout jonche des boucles dorees. Anne ne resiste pas, de meme qu'un agneau, muet devant celui que le tond, elle

Anne Askew

81

2S

ropes and she is stretched upon the rack. The torturer bends over to 30

begin his job. At this horrible crisis, even as the muscles in his arms were bulging from the force he was readying for his first effort, the door of the prison opened, and a man entered in haste. It was the secretary of Gardiner, Bishop of Winchester and Chancellor of England. He brusquely shoved

35

the torturer aside, unknotted the ropes with which Anne was bound, and said to her, •Anne Askew, I come from the palace. Milord the Bishop has interceded for you. He has obtained your pardon. Here is the letter that he sends you. Read it. • At first, Anne did not hear him; her mind was too distraught by the

40

horrors with which she found herself surrounded, and she did not comprehend that someone was speaking to her.

But little by little she

regained consciousness, she roused herself, and she opened the letter, which was conceived in these words: "The queen takes pity on your youth and inexperience. She wants 45

to grant you the favor of your life. Only renounce the heretical dogmas by which you have been led astray, confess your errors, reenter the bosom of the holy Catholic church, and riches, honors, life, will be your recompense. Stephen Gardiner"

50

"My God, my God!" Anne cried out in a rending voice, "do not forsake me. They tempt me as they tempted Cranmer in his final hour. • "And you must yield as Cranmer yielded," retorted the secretary. "And die as he died, soiled by apostasy," said she, "because your church did not keep the oath it swore to Cranmer and it will not keep the

55

one it swears to me. • "Cranmer was an old man, hardened in heresy; he well deserved his fate. But you are young; you still have time to expiate your crimes. Think of all the horrors of the death that you must undergo if you refuse

82

Anne Askew

n'ouvre pas la bouche; on lui serre les bras avec des cordes et l'etend sur le rack - le bourreau se courbe pour commencer sa besogne. A. cette

30

crise horrible pendant que les muscles de son bras etaient tout enfles de

a son premier effort, la porte du homme entra a la hAte, c'etait le secretaire de

la force qu'il se preparait de mettre prison s'ouvrit, et un

Gardiner, eveque de Winchester et chancelier d' Angleterre. 11 ecarta brusquement le bourreau, i1 denoua les cordes dont Anne etait liee, et lui

35

dit "Anne Askew j'arrive du palais- monseigneur l'eveque a intercede pour vous, i1 a obtenu votre pardon voici la lettre qu'il vous envoyelisez. • D'abord Anne ne l'entendit pas, son esprit etait tout egare par les horreurs dont elle se trouvait entouree, elle ne comprit pas qu' on lui adressait la parole, mais peu

a peu

40

elle reprit connaissance, elle se

releva, elle ouvrit la lettre, elle etait con~ue en ces mots "La reine a pitie de votre jeunesse et de votre inexperience, elle veut vous faire grAce de votre vie - renoncez seulement aux dogmes heretiques, dont vous vous etes egaree, confessez vos erreurs, rentrez dans

45

le sein de Ia sainte eglise catholique et les richesses, les honneurs, la vie, sera votre recompense

Etienne Gardiner Mon Dieu, mon Dieu!" s'ecria-t Anne d'une voix dechirante "ne m'abandonnez pas, on me tente comme on tenta Cranmer a sa demiere heure•

50

"Et vous devez ceder comme Cranmer ceda" repartit le secretaire

"Et mourir comme i1 mourut, souillee d'apostasie" disait elle "car votre eglise n'a pas garde le serment qu'elle jura a Cranmer et elle ne gardera pas ce qu'elle jure a moi" "Cranmer etait un vieillard endurci dans 1'heresie, i1 a bien merite son sort, mais vous etes jeune, vous avez encore le temps d' expier vos forfaits. Pensez a toutes les horreurs de la mort que vous devez subir si vous refusez de signer Ia formule de renonciation. Je dois bientot vous

Anne Askew

83

55

to sign the formula of renunciation. 60

I must soon leave you, and when

I close the door of this dungeon you will remain alone with the torturer.

He will seize you; he will stretch you again on that bed, which is no bed of roses; these thick walls will conceal your agony and smother your groans.

All this night will be, for you, a night of mortal suffering

because the torture for which you are destined is as slow as it is sharp. 65

Do not hesitate. Here is a pen; there are witnesses. Sign and live. • A horrible temptation seized the young woman's heart. She lost sight of the glorious hope of her religion. The tempting spirit said to her, "You are going to die for an illusion; all religion is futile. If there was

70

a God in heaven would he thus abandon his people to the barbarous his hands of \lteik enemies? There is neither heaven nor hell. After death, there is nothing but Annihilation. Live then for as long as you can. You are young and fair, and life offers you so many joys! Sign. • The scrutinizing gaze of the secretary reads these thoughts in her countenance; he draws a table toward her; he places before her the

75

formula of renunciation. Silence reigns in the prison. Anne takes the pen, she leans over the paper, she has already begun tracing the first letters of her name, when an inner voice seems to say to her: "Whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my Father which is in heaven. And fear not them which take the life

80

from the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in Gehenna. • And Anne Askew lets the pen drop. She stretches herself willingly on the bed of torture. And closing her eyes, as if she were going to sleep, she says, "I am Protestant. •

84

Anne Askew

quitter, et quand je ferme laporte de ce cachot vous resterez seule avec le bourreau, il s'emparera de vous, il vous etendra encore sur cette

60

couche qui n'est pas une couche de roses- ces murs epais cacheront vos angoisses et etoufferont vos gemissements; toute cette nuit sera pour vous une nuit de douleur mortelle carle supplice qu'on vous destine est aussi lent qu'il est aigu; n'hesitez pas, voici une plume, voila des temoins, signez et vivez. •

6S

Une tentation horrible s'empara du coeur de lajeune fille elle perdit de vue l'espoir glorieux de sa religion, l'esprit tentateur lui disait "vous allez mourir pour une illusion, toute religion est vaine, s'il etait un Dieu ses dans le ciel abandonnerait-il ainsi son peuple aux mains barbares de ltak~ ennemis? 11 n'y ani ciel ni enfer- apres la mort il n'y a que l'Anean-

70

tissement- vivez done aussi long-temps que vous pourrez Vous etes jeune et belle et la vie vous offre tant de joies! - signez. • Le regard scrutateur du secretaire lit ces pensees sur sa figure il lui

approche une table il place devant elle la formule de la renonciation - le silence regne dans le prison, Anne prend la plume, elle se penche sur le

75

papier deja elle commence a tracer les premiers lettres de son nom, lorsque une voix interieure semble lui dire "Quiconque me reniera devant les hommes je le renierai aussi devant mon pere qui est aux cieux, ne craignez done point ceux qui Otent la vie du corps et qui ne peuvent faire mourir l'Ame- mais craignez plutOt celui qui peut perdre et l'Ame et le corps dans la Gehenne," et Anne Askew laisse tomber la plume- elle s'etend volontairement sur le lit de supplice- et fermant les yeux, comme si elle s'endorme, elle dit "Je suis protestante. •

Anne Askew

85

80

[Fourth entry in Charlotte Bronte's notebook of dictations]

Eudorus Christian Conduct Fourth Century In the reign of Galerius a Christian named Eudorus, betrothed to the 5

young Cymodoce, was to be thrown to the lions. On the eve of the fatal day, he was taking his final meal with his comrades, destined as he was to martyrdom. In the midst of this affecting spectacle, a slave was seen approaching in haste: he forced his way through the crowd, inquired for Eudorus, and

10

placed in his hands a letter from the judge.

Eudorus unrolled the

missive; it was couched in these words: "Festus the Judge, to Eudorus the Christian, greeting. "Cymodoce is condemned to the abodes of infamy. Hierocles is there awaiting her. I entreat you, by the esteem with which you have 15

inspired me, to sacrifice to the gods: come and reclaim your spouse: I swear to deliver her to you pure, and worthy of you. • Eudorus swooned; all crowded around him; the soldiers near him seized the letter; the people demanded it; a tribune read it in a loud voice; the bishops stood mute in consternation; the whole assembly was

20

tumult and disorder. Eudorus recovered his senses, and the soldiers were already at his knees, saying to him: "Companion, sacrifice to the gods! Here are our eagles in default of an altar.• And they presented him a cup full of wine for the libation. A

25

horrible temptation seized the soul of Eudorus. Cymodoce in a place of infamy! [Cymodoce in the arms of Hierocles!] The bosom of the martyr heaved with emotion; the bandages burst from his wounds, and his blood flowed in streams from his body. The people, seized with pity, fell

86

Anne Askew

[Charlotte Bronte]

[Dictee]

Eudore Moeurs Chretiennes IV

Si~le

Sous le regne de Galerius, un Chretien nomme Eudore, fiance alajeune Cymodocee, allait

~tre

livre aux b~tes feroces. La veille du jour fatal,

s

il prenait le dernier repas avec ses freres destines comme lui au martyre Au milieu de cette scene touchante, on voit accourir un esclave, il perce la foule, il demande Eudore, il lui remet une lettre de la part du juge. Eudore deroule la lettre, elle etait con~ue en ces mots;

10

Festus juge, aEudore chretien, salut. Cymodocee est condamnee aux lieux

inf~mes

Hierocles l'y attend, je t'en supplie, par l'estime que tu

m'as inspire, sacrifie aux dieux, viens redemander ton epouse, je jure de te la rendre pure et digne de toi. Eudore s'evanouit, on s'empresse autour de lui; les soldats qui

lS

l'environnent, se saississent de la lettre, le peuple la reclame un tribun en fit la lecture a haute voix. Les

ev~ues

restent muets et consternes, !'assemble s'agite en

tumulte. Eudore revient a la lumiere, les soldats etaient a ses genoux et lui disaient "Compagnon sacrifiez! voila nos aigles au defauts d'autels. •

20

Et ils lui presentait la coupe pleine de vin pour la libation; une tentation horrible s'empara du coeur d'Eudore. Cymodocee aux lieux

inf~mes!

[... ] la poitrine du martyr se souleve, l'appareil de ses plaies se brise et le sang coule en abondance. Le peuple, saisi de pitie, tombe lui m~me aux genoux, et repete avec les soldats "Sacrifiez! sacrifiez!" Alors Eudore d'une voix sourde,

"Ou sont les aigles?" Les soldats frappent leurs boucliers en signe de triomphe, et se h!tent d'apporter les enseignes. Eudore se leve, le

Anne Askew

87

25

themselves at his knees, and repeated with the soldiers: 30

•sacrifice! Sacrifice!" "Where are the eagles?" said Eudorus, in a hollow voice. The soldiers struck their bucklers together in token of triumph, and hastened to bring the banners. Eudorus arose; the centurions supported him; he advanced to the foot of the eagles; silence reigned in the crowd.

35

Eudorus took the cup; the bishops veiled their faces in their robes, and the confessors uttered a cry: at this cry, the cup fell from the hands of Eudorus, he overthrew the eagles, and turning toward the martyrs, exclaimed: "I am a Christian!"

[Fran~is-Renede] Chateaubriand

88

Anne Askew

centurions le soutiennent, il s'avance aux pieds des aigles, le silence regne parmi la foule; Eudore prend la coupe, les eveques se voilent la tete de leurs robes, les confesseurs poussent un cri,

30

a ce cri, la coupe

tombe des mains d'Eudore- il renverse les aigles, et se toumant vers les martyrs il dit "Je suis Chretien•

Chateaubriand

Anne Askew

89

35

Comments

Late in May 1842, Heger dictated a passage from Chateaubriand's Mar-

tyrs to his students. They were then, presumably, to write an imitation, drawing on memories of a comparable episode or of another persecuted victim. Charlotte Bronte responded with an essay on a woman who died for her faith in 1546, a martyr in the Protestant tradition. Without prior knowledge of Anne Askew and her era, she could not have ventured on the project. Whatever the dungeon and the maiden owe to fairy tale, both had been described in Tudor chronicles. 1 History, however, is as malleable in the devoir as it is throughout The Martyrs. Like Chateaubriand, Charlotte had a vision to convey and an objective beyond historiography. He was trying to prove what he had argued in Ge-

nius, that Christianity surpassed Greece and Rome as a source and inspiration of literature. She was trying, once again, to confirm the strength of Protestant devotion under pressure. For the first time, an assignment of Heger's gave her license to write dramatic narrative. Eudorus and Cymodoce die holy deaths, but they live with the intensity of her Angrians. She had vowed to discontinue her juvenilia romances and the fictions she considered self-indulgent. But Anne Askew's temptations were religious, not erotic, and her plight lured

90

Charlotte back into the Gothic mode. In choosing a subject so English and Protestant, she also strengthened the "line of demarcation" she perceived between herself and the Catholics of the pensionnat. 2 Withdrawn and shy of speaking, she deflected her prejudice to Catholics dead three hundred years. In structure, "Anne Askew" closely imitates "Eudorus," Heger's title for the excerpt from The Martyrs. The opening sentences, the death threats, the letters, the temptations, and the final lines coordinate. Dietee and devoir combine narrative with dialogue, and both exploit the drama of religious persecution. But Chateaubriand develops his tableau as a crowd scene,3 whereas Charlotte stages hers in gloom and shadow, replacing the clamor of Chateaubriand's arena with a silence that Anne's torturers disrupt. A less apparent transformation also takes place: historic fact, allegedly the basis of both episodes, glides without a ripple into fiction. Of course, Chateaubriand did not profess to mirror history in the Christian epic he created. Rather, he attempted to increase the human interest by researching the ambience and context. He steeped himself in writings of the early church fathers; he toured Rome, Greece, Constantinople, Jerusalem, the ruins of Carthage, and Spain; he sketched and made extensive notes from sources. For seven years he labored over The Martyrs, which was promptly assailed for its inaccuracies.4 Charlotte had at most several days to do her writing, and she had brought no history books with her. Where did she get her information? The two examinations and martyrdom of Anne Askew (1521 ?-1546) are recounted, in Askew's own words, in John Foxe's Actes and Monu-

ments, more commonly called The Book of Martyrs. Throughout the nineteenth century, the Religious Tract Society published editions of this famous martyrology. When Charlotte was fifteen, it also published Askew's history in its series on British Reformers. Another account of Askew's life appears in George Ballard's Memoirs of Several Ladies of

Great Britain (1752); it too circulated in England. And a twenty-line reference to Anne Askew appears in William Mavor's Universal History, the series that Charlotte recommended to Ellen Nussey in 1834.5 She may not have been exposed to any of these texts; of Mavor's, she wrote, "[Read it] if you can I never did."6 But clearly, she had access to some ac-

Anne Askew

91

count of Askew's life, at Haworth or Miss Wooler's school at Roe Head. She must also have recalled her studies, formal or informal, of the early English Reformation. They enabled her to set Anne Askew in context and allude to persecutors with real counterparts: Stephen Gardiner (1490?-1555), Thomas Cranmer (1489-1556), and the anonymous torturer. That she worked from memory, rather than source books, is apparent from the errors that stud her brief narrative. Henry VIII was on the throne, not Mary Thdor; Askew's martyrdom preceded Cranmer's by ten years; though Gardiner and his party were behind the persecution, Wriosthesley was the chancellor who offered her pardon; he himself racked her, taking over from the jailer; and Askew not only survived the night of racking but also wrote it up in detail afterward. Did Heger suspect that Charlotte strayed from the facts? Was he impressed with the drama she constructed? Or did his comments focus on her grammar? There are no answers, since the draft has not been marked, and without more clues to the sources Charlotte drew on, it is risky to attack her for distorting them. She may only have been told about Askew's martyrdom, or she may have skimmed through Foxe ten years earlier. Nonetheless, the gender issues that her narrative raises make the risk of speculation worth taking. Her Anne Askew resembles the juvenilia women who are always at the mercy of male tempters. Beautiful and innocent, helpless and imprisoned, she has only the power of refusal. Though she uses that power to choose death over retraction, she dies a willing victim, not a rebel. 7 At first she cannot speak; fear makes her voiceless. Recovering, she cries for God's assistance. When the secretary and an evil spirit prompt her, she picks up the pen to trace her signature but stops because another voice addresses her. Allegedly interior; its words come from St. Matthew, as do two of her previous sentences. Finally, she affirms her Protestant identity; the voice is hers, the phrasing Chateaubriand's. In limiting Anne's power over destiny and language, Charlotte disconnects her from the real Anne Askew, a woman who would not be kept from speaking. Tied to the stake and facing death by public burning, she corrected the preacher when he misquoted the Bible and so forcefully exhorted the three men who died with her that they "set apart all kind of

92

Anne Askew

fear." 8 Throughout her ordeal she kept producing documents: point-bypoint accounts of her two examinations, letters, confessions, prayers, descriptions of her tortures, and a ballad that she "made and sang" in Newgate.9 Confident and capable, she parried men's words with her own arguments and used scripture as a weapon of resistance; when she kept silent, she was being politic: "Then [Bonner, the bishop of London] asked me, why I had so few words? And I answered, 'God hath given me the gift of knowledge, but not of utterance: and Solomon saith, That a woman of few words is the gift of God"' [Prov. xix.14]." 10 Charlotte keeps a few authentic details. The historical Askew too was young and beautiful, a martyr in her twenty-fifth year. But unlike the shrinking virgin of the devoir, she was married and the mother of two children. She came from a noble Lincolnshire family; her father had forced her to marry. She submitted and then immersed herself in biblical studies that eventually convinced her to tum Protestant. When her husband, led by priests, drove her out of the house, she moved to London and took back her maiden name. There, her independence and her manifest scholarship made her a target for Thdor conservatives, who claimed that only clergy had the right to interpret and communicate the meaning of scripture. Anne Askew had friends at court and well-connected relatives. She might have saved herself without recanting her beliefs by responding more submissively when questioned. Instead, she chose resistance, textual and oral. She bested men by quoting from the Bible. No hint of this biography appears in Charlotte's devoir, which draws on a different narrative tradition, one that D. A. Miller terms the "feminine carceral. " 11 Biblical quotations aside, this golden-haired victim belongs with her jailers in the kind of Gothic novel that flourished in the late eighteenth century. Like Emily and Anne, whose Gondal poems abound in dungeon scenes, the adolescent Charlotte had been drawn to Gothic fiction. Within the three months prior to writing this essay, she had read "The Young Captive," Chenier's poem about a maiden facing death (line 13 echoes its title.) 12 Her portrayal of a shorn and fainting Askew seems predictable enough at this period. And yet in her own devoirs she was making use of scripture, proving to Heger that despite imperfect French she knew it better than any Catholic schoolgirl. Submissive she might be, but not in matters of reli-

Anne Askew

93

gion, where, like Askew, she relied on the Bible. 13 As a writer too she might have found a precedent in Askew, whose pen kept flowing through torture and confinement and who, though she talked about her weakness as a woman, found the means to get her statements into print. What accounts for Charlotte's authorial choices? Perhaps she had read about Anne Askew years earlier, at an age when the drama of martyrdom, but not the drier details of the inquiry, impressed her. 14 Possibly she started to reinvent the character while she was a schoolgirl at Miss Wooler's. Ellen Nussey has alluded to the tales she told her classmates, and this narrative may have been one of them. Whatever its genesis, the devoir suggests that Charlotte, then about a year older than her martyr, was not yet ready to create a woman speaking with a power defiantly her own.

94

Anne Askew

10

Emily J. Bronte

[draft before correction]

June 1842

Portrait King Harold before the Battle of Hastings

Among all those gathered that evening, on the field, which, on the 5

morrow, would be the scene of so great a catastrophe, one could easily distinguish the king, not by his finery and his retinue, but by his countenance and his bearing. He walked a little distanced from the camp, upon a height that gave him an ample view of the plain where his army extended like an ocean

10

on all sides, as far as the horizon, which glowed with the enemy's fires. When he turned his gaze toward that latter spectacle, when he saw the sky reddened by that hostile light, when he considered that it was on his land that the usurpers reposed and that it was his forests that provided their flames, then, turning his eyes on the countryside below, when he

15

contemplated the long lines of his troops, which he knew to be as brave as they were numerous, as faithful as they were brave, when he thought of the power and of the justice of his cause, a sublime expression lit up his face, his soul fortified itself with the strongest exploits and, burning with a noble ardor, armed with an unshakable dauntlessness, he could not

20

imagine defeat. At that moment, the spirit of Harold gathered within itself the energy, the power, and the hopes of the nation. Then, he was no more a king; he was a hero. The situation had trans[f]ormed him; for in peace he would doubtless have been, like almost all other princes seated on a

25

tranquil throne, a nothing, a wretch entombed within his palace, sunk in pleasures, deceived by flatterers, knowing, provided he be not wholly imbecile, that of all his people he is the least free; that he is a creature who dares not act, who scarcely dares to think for itself. That all those

96

King Harold

Juin 1842

Emily J. Bronte

10

Portrait Le Roi Harold avant Ia Bataille de Hastings

Parmi tous ceux reunis ce soir, sur le champ, qui, demain, serait Ia scene d'un catastrophe si grande, on pouvait facilement distinguer le roi, non

s

par sa parure et sa suite, mais par sa figure et son maintien. II se promenait un peu eloigne du camp, sur une eminence, qui lui donnait une ample vue de Ia plaine ou son armee s'etendait comme un ocean de tous c6tes, jusqu'a l'horizon, qui reluisait des feux de l'ennemi.

10

Quand il portait ses regards vers ce demier spectacle, quand il voyait le ciel rougi de cette lumiere hostile, quand il songeait que c'etait sur sa terre que les usurpateurs se reposaient et que c'etaient ses for~ts qui fournissaient leurs flammes, puis, toumant les yeux sur Ia campagne en bas, quand il contemplait les longues lignes de ses troupes qu'il savait

~tre

lS

aussi braves que nombreuses, aussi fideles que braves, quand il pensait de sa puissance et de la justice de sa cause, une expression sublime illuminait son visage, son Arne se fortifiait aux exploits les plus grands et, brulant d'une noble ardeur, arme d'une intrepidite inebranlable, il ne pouvait imaginer Ia defaite.

20

Ace moment, l'esprit de Harold reunissait dans lui-m~me l'energie, le pouvoir, et les esperances de Ia nation. Alors, il n'etait plus un roi, il etait un heros. &a situation lui avait transorme, car en paix il aurait ete sans doute, comme presque tous les autres princes assis sur un tranquille tr6ne, un rien, un miserable enseveli dans son palais, abime en plaisirs, trompe de flatteurs, sachant, pourvu qu'il ne soit pas tout a fait imbecille, que de tout son peuple il est le moins libre; qu'il est une creature qui n'ose pas agir, qui n'ose guere penser par e1Ie-m~me. Que tous

Le Roi Harold

97

25

who surround him try to entangle his soul in a labyrinth of follies and 30

vices; that it is the universal interest to blind his eyes, so that his hand cannot move without being directed by a minister, and so that his body is a true prisoner, having his kingdom for prison and his subjects for guards. Harold, on the field of battle, without palace, without ministers,

35

without courtiers, without pomp, without luxury, having only the sky of his country above him for a roof, and that land beneath his feet, which he holds from his ancestors, and which he will only abandon with his life - Harold, surround by that crowd of devoted hearts, the representatives of millions more, all entrusting to him their safety, their liberty, and

40

their existence as a people - what a difference! As visible to men as to his Creator, the soul divine shines in his eyes; a multitude of human passions awake there at the same time, but they are exalted, sanctified, almost deified. That courage has no rashness, that pride has no arrogance, that indigation has no injustice, that assurance has no presump-

45

tion. He is inwardly convinced that a mortal power will not fell him. The hand of Death, alone, can bear the victory away from his arms, and Harold is ready to succumb before it, because the touch of that hand is, to the hero, what the stroke that gave him liberty was to the slave.

98

King Harold

ceux qui l'environnent tachent d'embrouiller son arne dans une labyrinthe de folies et de vices, que c'est !'interet universe! d'aveugler ses yeux,

30

que sa main ne peut pas mouvoir sans etre dirigee par un ministre, et que son corps est un vrai prisonnier, ayant son royaume pour prison et ses sujets pour gardes. Harold, sur le champ de bataille, sans palais, sans ministres, sans courtisans, sans faste, sans luxe, n'ayant que le ciel de sa patrie au-

35

dessus de lui pour toit, et cette terre sous ses pieds, qu'il tient de ses ancetres, et qu'il n'abandonnera qu'avec la vie- Harold entoure de cette foule de coeurs devoues, les representatifs de millions plus, tous confiant a lui leur surete, leur liberte et leur existence comme un peuple - quelle difference! Aussi visible aux hommes qu'a son Createur, l'ame divine

40

brille dans ses yeux, une multitude de passions humaines y eveillent en meme temps, mais elles soot exaltees, sanctifiees, presque deifiees. Ce courage n'a pas de temerite, cette fierte n'a pas d'arrogance, cette indignation n'a pas d'injustice, cette assurance n'a pas de presomption. 11 est interieurement convaincu qu'une pouvoir mortel ne l'abattra- La main de la Mort, seule, peut emporter la victoire de ses armes, et Harold est pr~t a succomber devant elle, parceque la touche de cette main est au

heros, comme le coup qui lui rendait la liberte, etait a l'esclave.

Le Roi Harold

99

45

Emily J. Bronte

[corrected draft]

June 1842

Portrait King Harold before the Battle of Hastings

those men

Among all

s

tbQ~

tft~Wf-~ie-will

there in that

1

of battle

gathered that evening; on the field, which, on the plain where soon IJUIIIt

morrow, would be the scene of so great a catastrophe, one could easily be decided the fate of a ldngdom distinguish the king, not by his finery and his retinue, but by his countenance and his bearing. far

He walked a little distanced from the camp, upon a height that gave him an ample view of the plain where his army extended like an ocean 10

on all sides, as far as the horizon, which glowed with the enemy's fires. the fires of the enemy camp When he turned his gaze toward that latter ~tacle, when he saw the sky reddened by that hostile light, when he considered that it was on his own territory ~that

fed the fires

the usurpers reposed and that it was his forests that provided valley

of their camps. When lowering

their flames, theft, turning his eyes on the eettftkyside Belew, Wfteft he IS

contemplated the long lines of his troops, which he knew to be as brave as they were numerous, as faithful as they were brave, when he thought of his power and of the justice of his cause, a sublime expression lit up pale

his face, ~s soul fortified itself with! the strongest exploits anr, burning with a 20

no~le ardor, armed with an ~nshakable dauntlessness

he could

not imagine defeat.; it is then thatl 1. his ill [him} aU ) I 1 \At that moment, the spirit of Harold gathered within itself the aU

ofa

energy, the po*er, aJ\d the hopes ef.-tfte nation. Then, he was no more e6lftJ'Iele

a king; he was a hero. The situation had transformed him. Fok in peace BfltitJ -

·,egettJfing indifferent

he would doubtless have been, like almost all other princes seated /on 25

and peaceful on his lu! would have been [ed] slave confined ~ •throne, no\hing, a wretch e&9!!l2ed within his

a

_...

his palace,

sunk in pleasures, deceived by flatterers, knowing, provided the man the

were he~

not

, rthe most in-

wholly imbecile, that of all his people he is the least free; that he is a_

capable of acting - -and - - - - - - - -and of [thinking} hi~- ~ -Ereature who ~tact, wh~res to think for !)self. That

100

King Harold

Emily J. Bronte

Juin 1842

Portrait Le Roi Harold avant la Bataille de Hastings

Parmi tous

cu lwmitlu ~ reunis

s~ne d'un catastrophe le sort d '1111 roytiiiiM

ltl dans cette

de bataille

tle'Mil hre

ce soir7 sur le lchamp, qui, demain, seral\ la plailte orl dew.lil se dldder bient/Jt

si grande, on pouvait facilement distinguer le roi,

5

non par sa parure et sa suite, mais par sa figure et son maintien. Iolii

11 se promenait un peu ~loign~ du camp, sur une eminence, qui lui donnait une ample vue delaplaine ou son armee s'etendait comme

{B

un ocean de tous cOtes, jusqu'a l'horizon, qui reluisait des feux de l'ennemi.

10

les fewc d• CfJitiiJ eiiiiDIIi

Quand il portait ses regards vers ce demier ~tacle, quand i1 voyait son

le ciel rougi de cette lumiere hostile, quand il songeait que c'etait sur H terrlloire, d lid, ~que les

alimenttJient

usurpateurs se reposaient et que c'etaient ses forets qui four-

les fewc tk lerlrs biWJIIIICS. (lKand abaissant

WJIUe

de

nissaient leurs flammes, pttis, toumant les yeux sur la e&tBpttgfte eft bas,

EtUilftEl il contemplait les longues lignes de ses troupes qu'il savait etre

15

aussi braves que nombreuses, aussi fideles que braves, quand il pensait t}

t}

do sa puissance et do la justice de sa cause, une expression sublime illupale

minait son visage, !on Arne se fortifilrlt aux exploits les plus grands et, brulant d'une nobl ardeur, arme d'u!e intr~idite ineb!anlable, il ne pouvait imaginer Ia defaite.; c'est qu'alors 1•en

son

20

\

en

to81e

\Ace moment, l'esprit del Harold reunissait dans lui-mlme l'energie, d'lllte

10811!8

lc pouvoir, e\ les esperances Ele4& nation. Alors, il n'etait plus un roi, l'

/[?]

~

i1 etait un heros. U situation 18\ avait trlltsorme, cak en paix il aurait tie._~~

indifferent et

ete sans doute, comme presque tousles autres princes assis /s~ paisible sur son

~ertrOne,

U e8l hi

m\ den, un

esclave confine

miserableve~li

dans son palais, abime en

parsu

j'Qt

plaisirs, trompe de flatteurs, sachant,. pourvu qu'il ne s!;!it pas tout a fait l'homme le r le plus incapable imbecille, que de tout son peuple il est lc moins libre.; ~d'agir- - e t - - - - - - - - - - -et de lui ~ui ~ar agir, qu~ere penser par ~-meme.

Le Roi Harold

101

Que tous

25

to lead astray

all those who surround him try to

~Jltslwd~

his soul in a labyrinth of

ofthosewlio-surround him is

follies and vices; that it-is the ~ interesno blind his eyes, so that

30

he cannot make a move, without a minister

ing it;

in a word

his hand cannot move without being directed by 11 lftiaister, ftftEi-se that he is no mare than a in his crown and royal purple his betly is a true prisoner; having his kingdom for prison and his courtiers ~

for guards.

But Harold, on the field of battle, without palace, without ministers, above him 35

vG

without courtiers, without pomp, without luxury, having·only the sky of that lond

his country llbe'f•e hiffi fer 11 reef, and th11t l11ae beneath his feet, ·which he holds from his ancestors, and which he will only abandon with his life.;. Harold, surrounded by th11t erewe ef devoted hearts, the represea who luJve enlnlsted in

tllti¥es ef ffiillieas ffiere, ttH entrustiftg-te him their safety, their liberty, 40 !tis atJtll is e¥alletl alltl

Harold is no longer and their existence 11s 11 peeple - what a difference! As visible to men Uust] a man M is transfigured of a people wholly united beams as to his Creator, the soul ~- ~ in his eyes; 11 ffittltitttee ef egoistic until that hour-------,

his

human passions~ there~. but they are exalted, saneHis

mare

his

tified, almost deified. =Rtllt courage has no rashness, tltftt pride has no more

his

more anger his

more

arrogance, tltftt indignation has no iRj ttstiee, tltftt assurance has no prehuman 45

sumption. He is inwardly convinced that a mortal power will not fell and in [?] tear '""'"""'

him. The h11Re ef Death, alone·, can bear the victory away from his but Death [ ? ]

arms, ftftd Harold is ready to ~d"~. because the touch of that hand is, to the hero, what the stroke that gave him liberty was to the slave.

so

on the field of battle The stroke of the sword that kills a hero II is the stroke of the rod with which but

the master taps his slave to free him. -

102

King Harold

m

d'~garu

ceux qui l'environnent tachent d ·~son Arne t.J.!!~

that arises from robust health MEl steaey fteFYes, he would have

been ~a brave soldier and nothing more; but his ardor was that of It is true that

~

the soul, its flame was pure and it rose up to heaven. Undoubtedly ~

2S

Peter's youth was troubled by stormy passions; powerful natures are extreme in everything, they know not tepidity neither in good nor in evil; so at first so Peter searched avidly for the glory that withers and the

126

Peter the Hermit

Charlotte Bronte

Le 31 Juillet 1842

Imitation Portrait de Pierre 1'Hermite.

De temps en temps, il parait sur la terre des hommes, (destines A~tre les) ~"'

predestines

instrumentsv de grands changements, moraux ou politiques, daM lettf pourquoi steele. Quelquefois c'est un conquerant, un Alexandre ou un Attila, qui

s

cette suppression?

passe comme un ouragan, et purifie !'atmosphere morali comme l'orage purifie !'atmosphere physique; quelquefois, c'est un revolutionnaire, un fautes et les

Cromwell ou un Robespierre qui fait expier par un roi les vvices de toute une dynastie; quelquefois c'est un enthousiaste religieux comme

10

Mahomet ou Pierre l'Ermite, qui, avec le seullevier de la pensee souleve des nations entieres, les deracine et les transplante dans des climats nouveaux,

~u

lant l'Asie avec les habitants de l'Euro ).

Pierre

l'Ermite etait gentilhomme de Picardie e&Ffltftee; pourquoi done n'a-t-il passe sa vie com me les autres gentilshommes ses contemporains ont passe

Ce derail ne convient qu 'd Pie"e 1 inutile quand lS vous ecriver. en fra11fais.

la leur, Atable, Ala chasse dans son lit, sans s'inquieter de Saladin ou ses de~ Sarrasins? N'est-ce pas, parcequ'il y a dans certaines natures, une foyer d'activite

~r indomptable qui ne leur permet pas de rester inactivetqui les

~me en

for:tcd se remuer afin d'exercer l.eslfacultes puissantes, qui, dorm nt sont reti

pr~tes

comme Samp on a briser les noeuds

ui les

ent'? s 'il n •avait eu que cette

Vous aver. commmence d parler de 20 Pie"e, vous hes entree dans le sujet, marcher. au but.-

vulgaire

Pierre prit la profession des armes, si sonv ardeur

a~

c'eut ~ vqui

t~

provient d'une robuste sante et des ~lefts fteffs, il aurait ete

un brave militaire et rien de plus; mais son ardeur etait celle de 11 est vrai que ~

l'!me sa flamme etait pure et elle s'elevait vers le ciel. Sans doute la ~

fot

jeunesse de Pierre &it troublee par passions orageuses; les natures puissantes sont extremes en tout, elles ne connaissent pas la tiedeur ni dans 1e bien ni dans le mal; Pierre done chercha d'abord avidement Ia gloire

Pierre l' Ermite

127

2S

he realized

pleasures that deceive, but very soon he m!lde needless, when you have said 30 illusion.

th~very

that what

he pursued was but 8ft illusion whieh he eettld fte't'et' &Hfti&. Therefore he retraced his steps, he recommenced the voyage of his life, but this time he avoided the broad road that leads to perdition and he took the narrow As

road that leads to life.

S~

the way was long and difficult, he cast off

the helmet and the weapons of a soldier and donned the simple habit of

35

a monk. To the military life succeeded the monastic life, because exwHit the sieeere IRIIIl necessarily in train tremes meet and ... the sincerity of repentance brings ~ i1 the rigor of the penitence. - Thus Peter converted into a monk; he

But Peter had in himself a principle that kept him from remaining long inactive; his ideas, whatever the subject might be, could not be confined; it was not enough for him that he himself was religious, that 40

he himself was convinced of the reality of Christianity; all of Europe, all of Asia must share his conviction and profess its faith in the Cross. fervent

exalted his

Piety elevated by Genius and nourished by Solitude brought

~

soul to

kind of inspiration ie his settl, and when he quitted his cell and reappeared in the world, he bore like Moses the imprint of Divinity on his 45

countenance, and everyone recognized in him the lftle apostle of the cross. Mahomet had not e¥eP moved the soft nations of the East as Peter then moved the austere people of the West. That eloquence must have since it £persuadjed

had an almost miraculous force w~d persuade kings to sell their to get

offer

kingdoms so as to procure weapons and soldiers to aid Peter in the holy 50

war that he wanted to raise against the infidels. the hermit's

Peter's power was not in any way a physical power, for Nature, or to put it better, God, is impartial in the distribution of his gifts; he bestows on one Of hls ehildre& grace, beauty, bodily perfection, on another spirit, moral grandeur. Hcnae, Peter was a short man, of a 55

displeasing physiognomy; but he had that courage, that constancy, that enthusiasm, that energy of feeling which crushes all opposition and makes the will of a single man become the law of an entire nation. 128

Peter the Hermit

il s 'aper~ut

qui se fletrit et les plaisirs qui trompent, mais il::fH bientOt Ia...,...,...,.., decou~erte que ce qu'il poursuivait n'etait qu'm\e illusion al~M~Uelle\ il fte peuffti:t jamttis atteiadre; il retourna done sur ses pas, il

recommen~

le voyage

30

inutile, quand vous avez dit illusion.

de Ia vie, mais cette fois il evita le chemin spacieux qui mene lla perdition et u prit le chemin etroit qui mene lla vie:

comme p~ue

le trajet etait

long et difficile, il jeta le casque et les armes du soldat, et se vetit de

35

l'habit simple du moine. A Ia vie militaire succeda Ia vie monastique, eltft l'ltemme ~re

n~cessairemt

asa suite

car, les extremes se touchent et"'la sincerite du repentir amenev ~ hli Ia rigueur de la penitence.- Voila done Pierre devenu moine; il

Mais Pierfe avait en lui un principe qui l'em¢chait de rester longque sefut

temps inactif, ses idees, sur quel sujet

~

ne pouvaient pas etre

40

bomees; il ne lui suffisait pas que lui-meme flit religieux, que lui-meme flit convaincu de la realite de Christianisme, il fallait que toute l'Europe, que toute I' Asie partageit sa conviction et professit Ia croyance de Ia fervent

exalta son

~~~q~ P/~te elevee par le Genie e\ nourrie par Ia Solitude tit n3&s ~ espece

l'inspiration daBs sea ime, et lorsqu'il quitta sa cellule et

45

reparut dans le monde, il portait comme Moise I' empreinte de la Divinite s

sur son front et toul reconnurent en lui le 'Yeritele apOtre de Ia croix Mahomet~ n' avait jtttfttM remue les molles nations de I'Orient comme

alors Pierre remua les peuples austeres de !'Occident: il fallait que cette puis qu 'elle

aie

eloquence rot d'une force presque miraculeuse q~persuad~ aux

so

pour avoir-------,

rois de vendre leurs royaumes afin de procurer des armes et des soldats

aojfri,....-,

pour aider l Pierre dans Ia guerre sainte qu'il voulait livrer aux infideles. l'hermite

La puissance de Pierre¥ n'etait nullement une puissance physique,

car la Nature, ou pour mieux dire, Dieu, est impartial dans Ia distribution de ses dons; il accorde ll'un de ses eafaftts la grice, Ia beaute, les perfections corporelles, ll'autre, l'esprit, Ia grandeur morale. Pierre done etait un homme, petit, d'une physionomie peu agreable; mais il avait ce courage, cette constance, cet enthousiasme, cette energie de sentiment qui ecrase toute opposition et qui fait que Ia volonte d'un seul Pierre I'Ermite

129

55

correct that man events To form a ... idea of the influence which ... exercised on the ehftftletefs

and the ideas of his time, he must be represented in the midst of the army 60

of crusaders, in his double role of prophet and warrior; the poor hermit the humble

dressed in a poor gray

habi~

js there, mefe pewet'fttl th&ft a I.Hag; lte-t!

su~rouded b/; :'~titude:/a mulatude thats s him only, and js for him, he sees only heaven; his upraised eyes seem to say: •I an

God

the angels, and I have lost sight of the earth!• but that

65

sf

frock

Ia that mement the poor gray httbit is for him like the mantle of the Peter

prophet Elijah; it envelops him with inspiration.

He reads into the

he sees

future; he sees Jerusalem delivered;; the holy sepulchre free; he-sees the ~ft n silver crescent tom away from the Temple, and the Oriflamme and Red are

Peter

Cross established in its place. Not only does he see these marvels, but revived 70

he makes all those who surround him see them. He has put hope and all those bodies exhausted by fatigue and privation

_,

courage in· the hearts of all these soldiers. The battle will not be fought until

tomorrow meffliRg, but the victory is decided, that evening. Peter has promised/ and the Crusaders trust his pi'&IBise word, as the Israelites trusted that of Moses and of Joshua./

130

Peter the Hermit

t

homme devienitt la loi de toute une nation.

60

juste

se

cet homme

choses

Pour former une"' idee de }'influence qu'exerc;ai\"' sur les e&ftlt!teres et les idees de son temps, il faut se le representer au milieu de l'armee des croises, dans son double rate de prophete et du guerrier; le pauvre de l'humble

ermite

v~tu

du pauvre habit gris est la plus pttissltftt qtt'ttft fei; il-est

de Ia

avide;J

entoure 8!ttfte multitude, I tttt!ftMeHftl1Bttttl~tiffitttltf!El1.ui ne voit que lui, tanjiisque

6S

lui, il £e voit que le ciel; ces yeux leves semblent dire: "Je vfis Dieu et tesfanges et j'ai perdu de vue la terre. • mais ce

froc

Dltfts ee ftleftleftt It pauvre ftabit gris est pour lui comme le manteau Pierre

d'Elijah; ill'enveloppe d'inspiration: illit dans l'avenir; il voitJerusalem u~·

m

delivre;: le saint sepulchre libre; il-¥eit le croissant argente arrache du sont

t¥J

70

s

Temple, et l'Oriflamme et la Croix rouge etablit~ a sa place; non seulePierre

ment U voit ces merveilles, mais illes fait voir a tous ceux qui l'entourraviv~

tous ces corps

~puis~s

de fatigues et de

ent, il a mls l'esperance et le courage dansv les coeurs de tous ces privations

tte

que

soldats;- la bataille ne sera livreevdemain tBtltift, mais la victoire est decidee, ce soir. Pierre a promis/ et les croises se fient

a sa pl'eftlesse

parole, comme les Israelites se fiaient a celle de Moise et de Josuk./

Pierre l'Ermite

131

7S

[Extract from tenth entry in Charlotte Bronte's notebook of dictations]

The Capture of Jerusalem by the Crusaders . . . The imagination turns with dread from these scenes of desolation, and can scarcely, amidst the carnage, contemplate the touching image of 5

the Christians of Jerusalem, whose chains the Crusaders had just broken. Scarcely had the city been taken, when they were seen flocking to meet the conquerors; they shared with them the provisions that they had been able to steal from the Saracens; and all together thanked the God who had made the arms of the soldiers of the cross triumphant.

10

Peter the Hermit, who, five years before, had promised to arm the West for the deliverance of the Christians of Jerusalem, must indeed have enjoyed the spectacle of their gratitude and joy. The faithful of the holy city, amid the crowd of Crusaders, seemed only to seek and to see the pious cenobite, who had visited them in their sufferings, and whose

IS

promises had all just been realized. They pressed in a crowd around the venerable hermit. It was to him that they addressed their songs of praise. It was he whom they proclaimed their liberator. They related to him the evils they had suffered during his absence; they could scarcely believe what was happening

20

before their eyes, and in their enthusiasm, they expressed astonishment that God should have employed only a single man to raise up so many nations, and to effect such prodigies. [Joseph-Fran~ois]

132

Peter the Hermit

Michau[d]

[Charlotte Bronte]

[Extrait d'une dictee]

Prise de Jerusalem par les croises . L'lmagination se detourne avec effroi de ses scenes de desolation et peut

a peine

au milieu du carnage, s9#~§mP~I! 1 ~m~~~ touchante des

chretiens de Jerusalem dont les croises venaient de briser les fers.

A

5

peine la ville venait-elle d 'etre conquise, qu 'on les vit accourir au-devant des vainqueurs; ils partageaient avec eux les vivres qu 'ils avaient pu derober

Sarrasins tous remerciaient ensemble le Dieu qui avail fait

triompher les armes des soldats de Ia croix. L'ermite Pierre qui cinq ans auparavant avait promis d'armer

10

1'Occident pour la delivrance des 8fl~~i~B~ de Jerusalem, dut jouir alors du spectacle de leur reconnaissance et de leur joie. Les fj:g~I~~ de Ia ville sainte au milieu de Ia foule des croises semblaient ne chercher, ne voir que le cenobite p~~g~. qui les avail visites dans leurs souffrances et dont toutes les pro messes venaient d 'etre accomplies.

15

Ils se pressaient en foule autour de l'ermite venerable c'est qu'ils

s~adressaient

a lui

leurs cantiques; C'est lui qu'ils proclamaient leur

liberateur, ils lui racontaient les maux qu'ils avaient soufferts pendant son absence; ils pouvaient

a peine croire a ce qui

se passait sous leurs

yeux, et dans leur enthousiasme, ils s'etonnaient que Dieu se fut servi d 'un seul hom me pour sou lever tant de nations pour operer tant de prodiges. Michaut

Pierre l'Ermite

133

20

Comments

When Elizabeth Gaskell interviewed Heger in Brussels, he still owned at least six of Charlotte's devoirs. 1 He had given others away as souvenirs, and presumably he made her a gift of this one, in the version dated July 31 (the June draft had gone home with Charlotte). 2 Whether he and Gaskell chose "Peter" together or he selected it before her arrival, it was a good essay for her purposes. By printing the devoir with his explanation, she could illustrate his methods of teaching and commenting-in her words, "give a proof of his success."3 She could draw comparisons to Emily's "Harold," also written to imitate Hugo's "On Mirabeau," and then invite her readers to measure Charlotte's progress by reproducing the devoir on Napoleon that Charlotte composed ten months later. But the sequence is not quite as neat as Gaskell makes it, or perhaps as Heger led her to conclude. Like "Mirabeau," "Peter the Hermit" describes a leader with a turbulent past who rouses people through the power of language and finds himself in finding a cause. Like "Harold," "Peter" portrays that leader on the evening before a famous battle. As Emily seizes on the moment of transfiguration, so Charlotte's first draft catches Peter at the moment where he masters himself. But Charlotte's devoir alludes to more than "Mirabeau" and brings

134

in more than one of Heger's lessons. It draws on Joseph Michaud's History of the Crusades, probably on Carlyle's On Heroes, and inevitably on the Bible. Gaskell did not know about the dictee from Michaud, the obvious source of Charlotte's subject, and she says that Heger had the sisters study Carlyle only after "they had made further progress."4 But Heger might have forgotten a few details, fourteen years and hundreds of students later, and, in any case, ambitious Charlotte Bronte would have wanted to do more than he required. It is not hard to see why Peter the Hermit appealed to a woman less than five feet tall who struck other students as looking "insignificant" and skinny, "maigrelette."5 Meager and ill-favored, "without fortune or renown," Peter single-handedly launched the First Crusade through "the force of his character and his genius," or so Michaud alleges in 1808, on the basis of earlier chronicles.6 Later historians who have sifted fact from legend come up with a somewhat different story. Peter's preaching did inspire an army of peasants, a section of which he led to Constantinople, but the Turks destroyed his troops in 1096, three years before the Siege of Jerusalem, and after that he took his orders from the princes, even trying at one point to escape.7 Michaud includes much of this material, but, like the legend makers, he glorifies Peter, and Charlotte, less interested in fact than in heroism, uncritically draws on his account. In addition to the "raising up" of nations, an image that occurs at the end of the dictee, "noble family of Picardy," "ignoble and vulgar exterior," "[b]om with a restless, active spirit," "profession of arms," and "ardent mind" all appear in Michaud, as does a description of the cenobite becoming exalted in solitude.8 Whether Heger added these details in class or Charlotte borrowed the book to find them, her apotheosis of Peter goes even further than Michaud's. Wherever she can, she works in biblical allusions-to Samson, the Sermon on the Mount, Elijah, Moses-that reinforce Peter's claims to glory. She seems not to have considered that in drafting such a portrait, she might be guilty of the kind of hagiography she hated when Catholics were responsible. Every evening, students who boarded at the pensionnat heard a "pious lecture" based on legends of the saints. In Gaskell's words, they were "Charlotte's night-mare."9 Yet Charlotte herself became carried away when she thought about Jerusalem delivered.

Peter the Hermit

135

But even in childhood, biblical cities had sparked her imagination. (The imaginary canvas in version one, with its "multitude" and Lebanon and Jordan in the background, may owe something to the John Martin engravings that hung on the parsonage walls.) 10 Her fascination with martyrs and missionaries also informs her account of Peter, who combines in one small person the lone man with a cause and the charismatic leader of legions. She had given up romances of the Angrian kind, but the romance of religion, with Peter as its hero, was a licit and tenable replacement. By bracketing him with Mohammed near the opening, Charlotte foreshadows the conclusion of her essay, where the crescent, symbol of Muslim ascendancy, yields to the Christian cross. She is obviously trying for a formal introduction-Emily, in contrast, plunges into "Harold"and establishing parameters for heroism. In this, Charlotte probably echoes Carlyle, whose theories about great men she could have encountered on her own or in one of Heger's lectures. Carlyle, of course, did not originate the notion that men of genius sway the course of history. But in his influential study, On Heroes, Hero-Worship, and the Heroic in History, he classifies leaders as she starts to do here. In Lecture II, "The Hero as Prophet," he too cites the example of Mohammed, and in Lecture VI, "The Hero as King," one of his examples is Napoleon. Carlyle gave his six lectures in May 1840 and published them in 1841. Charlotte may not have read the book in England, but if she had come across a review of it, she would have known its thesis and framework. 11 And so when Heger asked the Brontes to read Carlyle (on Cromwell, the other subject of Lecture VI) she might for once have been ahead of him. Her desire to show Heger what she was learning is apparent in several small touches. Hugo says in his opening section that the family's name for Mirabeau was "The Hurricane"; Charlotte begins with a metaphor of tempest. Mirabeau was ugly, his face pitted with smallpox scars, but in speaking, he was "something magnificent"; her Peter has "nothing magnificent" in his form, and yet he is "something quite remarkable. " 12 But perhaps more meaningful to Charlotte than these details was the lesson of Peter's career. He was born, she says, with irrepressible energy and faculties that demanded exercise. He was also born into a rank and

136

Peter the Hermit

a milieu that hampered his use of those faculties. His ardor carried him through wrong choices and a period of isolated penance, but he only achieved greatness when divine inspiration and a mission empowered his eloquence. Then his genius brought him mastery over others and, with the final addition of self-mastery, enabled him to fulfill his promise. Detaching this plot from its historical particulars makes Charlotte's investment in it clearer. She knew what it was to live with frustrated energies and talent that demanded an outlet. She too had aspirations: to write, to make a difference, to rouse her readers' feelings, to be recognized. The image of Peter, eyes fixed on the heavens while thousands surrounding him attend to his words, is crucial, one suspects, to her fantasies. But her ambition motivated efforts that got beyond her control. Yielding to fervor, she forgot Heger's warning: "Remorselessly sacrifice everything that does not contribute to clarity, verisimilitude, and effect."13 Emily Bronte needed no prompting from Heger to stick to the point. Her devoir keeps strictly to Harold in his territory, building toward the moment that transforms him. In contrast, Charlotte promises a portrait of a great man and delivers a religious encomium. She opens with a sweep through history and then shifts bumpily to Peter. She implies that she will focus on his greatness as a leader but detours to his troubled soul and then, in draft one, to her imaginary canvas. She never shows Peter the orator in action, as Hugo so lavishly shows Mirabeau. Heger responds to both drafts of the devoir, as he probably did in other cases where the manuscripts have not survived. He seems to have gone quickly through the June version, revising imagery and details in the first half and indicating passages to cut. In the July version Charlotte follows his suggestions, exchanging her words for his and cutting canceled passages, but she herself initiates few changes. He goes through that draft more thoroughly, adding marginal comments and corrections, some to lines he left alone earlier. Grammar aside, his revisions trim excess, especially religious excess, and refine the details of her phrasing. In effect, he extends the lesson on "Mirabeau" in which he pointed out that the fault of Hugo's style was "exaggeration in conception" and the beauty, "his 'nuances' of expression." 14 He also tries to hold her to her subject, though his promptings are not always consistent. In one round, he praises her allusion to Samson; in the next, he strikes it out. In June he leaves her

Peter the Hermit

137

conclusion alone; in July he reworks it. Nor does he always recognize the signs of her diligence and enterprise. When she paints her imaginary canvas in version one, "the image of the Cenobite amid the armed crusaders," she is not just writing picturesque prose with a subtext. She is echoing a passage by Michaud. Heger did not dictate the lines in which Peter stands on the Mount of Olives, exhorting the troops and promising them victory at the next day's siege of Jerusalem. 15 But Charlotte could assume he had read them, so that though she abandons Hugo's genre of portrait, she does not abandon Heger's lessons. If he had asked for another kind of devoir, he might even have praised her description. Instead he puts two pencil strokes through its opening, 16 and she deletes two picture-making paragraphs in version two. If Charlotte had been more like Emily, she might have held her

ground and kept her tableau. If she had been more like Lucy Snow in Villette, she might at least have argued for her vision. But Lucy was a fiction, more than ten years in the future. For the Charlotte Bronte of 1842, as for the speaker of a poem she wrote later, "Obedience was [the] heart's free choice." 17 She followed Heger's orders in revising her devoir, and, again, she wrote a happy ending.

138

Peter the Hermit

12

July 16th.

Emily J. Bronte.

Letter.

Madam, Tomorrow, there will be a small musical party at our house, to which

s

I am directed to invite you. The execution of that order gives me great pleasure, because I can assure you that the pieces are well chosen, that most of the musicians are skillful, and therefore, that you will spend some pleasant hours here. Beyond the pleasure of seeing you, your friends expect from your

10

hands a [contribution] to the evening's amusements. Thus I hope that you will not refuse to come, since that would be a deprivation, both for you and for them. I am, Madam, your respectful student

Reply.

15

Dear Miss, It would have been, in truth, a great pleasure for me had I been able to accept your invitation; but in a life like mine, our inclination cannot always be followed, and unfortunately the day of your party is, of all the 20

days of my week, the busiest. Thus I find myself obliged to give up the pleasure of seeing my friends and of contributing whatever I could to their amusement. But when I suffer a disappointment, I ordinarily seek some compensation in return; and at present, I console myself with the thought that if I

25

am denied the opportunity to exhibit my small talent, at least, I will not 140

Letter (Madam)

Emily J. Bronte.

16 Juillet.

12

Lettre.

Madame, Demain, il y aura chez nous une petite soiree musicale, a laquelle je suis dirigee avous inviter. L'execution de cet ordre me donne beaucoup

s

de plaisir, parceque je puis vous assurer que les morceaux sont bien choisis, que la plupart des musiciens sont habiles, et par consequence, que vous y passiez quelques heures agreables. Outre le plaisir de vous voir, vos amis attendent avos mains une [?] aux amusements de la soiree, ainsi j'espere que vous ne refusiez pas d'y

10

venir, puisqu'il serait une privation, et pour vous-meme, et pour eux. Je suis, Madame, votre eleve respecteuse

Reponse. Mademoiselle,

15

II aurait ete, en verite, un grand plaisir pour moi si j'avais pu accepter votre invitation; mais dans une vie comme la mienne, il ne faut pas toujours suivre notre inclination et malheureusement, le jour de votre soiree, est, de tous les jours de rna semaine, le plus occupe: ainsi je me trouve obligee a renoncer au bonheur de voir mes amis et de contribuer ce que je pusse a leur amusement. Mais lorsque j'eprouve des contre-temps je cherche ordinairement quelque dedommagement en revanche, et a present, je me console avec l'idee que sije suis privee de l'opportunite d'exhiber mon petit talent, au Lettre (Madame)

141

20

undergo the mortification of witnessing the poor results of my work with you; because I have heard that you are to play a piece on this occasion, and forgive me if I advise you (out of pure friendship) to choose a time when everyone is occupied with something other than music, for I fear that your performance will be a little too remarkable. 30

Still, I would not want to discourage you. Good day, and good luck with all my heart.

142

Letter (Madam)

moins, je n'aurais pas la mortification d'etre temoin du mauvais succes

2S

demon travail~ l'egard de vous; parceque j'ai oui dire que vous deviez jouer un morceau sur cette occasion, et pardonnez moi si je vous conseille (c'est par pure amitie) de choisir le temps quand toutle monde sont occupe d'autre chose que la musique, car je crains que votre execution ne soit un peu trop remarquable.

30

Cependant je ne voudrais vous decourager, bon jour, et bon succes de tout mon coeur

Lettre (Madame)

143

13

Charlotte Bronte

July 21st

Letter of invitation to a Clergyman

Dear Sir, 5

pastor In fulfilling your duties as a priest[?], have you never found yourself

obliged to write a letter to a rich miser, to entreat him to contribute to a charitable fund? If you have found yourself in this circumstance you may very well imagine my feelings in addressing you at this moment.

10

•But; you say, •I am not a miser. • Yes, sir, you are, and so much always so that until now it has· been impossible for me to wrest from you

alw

the least part of that treasure you guard with such vigilance.

That

treasure, sir, is not money; it is time. I beseech you, be generous for once. Next Thursday I am giving a small party at home, and I entreat you to honor it with your presence. Be sure that in granting me a few IS

hours of your so precious time, you will tum it to better account than by remaining at home, or perhaps even by visiting the poor of your parish. I need not tell you how much the presence of a pious and respectable clergyman in a society contributes to curbing all vain and idle remarks, nor how much the conversation of a learned man adds to the pleasure and

20

profit of the gathering. Neither need I tell you that my friends share my feelings toward you, and that if you come your arrival will be a pleasure for all, whereas if you do not come your absence will be for all a disappointment.

Begging to remain, Sir, yours sincerely, &c ......

25

144

Letter of invitation

Le 21 Juillet

13

pasteur En remplissant vos devoirs comme pr4tre[?] vous etes vous jamais

s

Charlotte Bronte

Lettre d'invitation

aun Ecclesiastique

Monsieur

trouve dans la necessite d'ecrire une lettre aun riche avare pour lui prier de contribuer a un fonds charitable? Si une telle circonstance vous est arrivee, vous pouvez tres bien concevoir quels sont mes sentiments en vous adressant dans ce moment. "Cependant" dites-vous "Je ne suis pas avare. • Oui monsieur vous toujours l'etes et a un tel point que jusqu'ici i1 m'a...ete \lttl impossible de vous

10

derober la moindre partie de ce tresor que vous gardez avec tant de vigilance: ce tresor monsieur, ce n'est pas l'argent, c'est le temps. Je vous en supplie soyez genereux pour une seule fois; Jeudi prochain je donne une petite soiree chez moi et je vous prie de vouloir bien l'honorer de

lS

votre presence; soyez silr qu'en m'accordant quelques heures de ce temps si precieux 4 vous le mettrez plus

a profit qu'en restant chez vous, ou

peutetre meme en visitant les pauvres de votre paroisse. Je n'ai pas besoin de vous dire combien la presence d'un ecclesiastique pieux et respectable dans une Societe, contribue a reprimer tous propos vains et

20

inutiles, ni combien la conversation d'un homme instruit ajoute aux agrements et aux avantages de la reunion. Je n'ai pas non plus besoin de vous dire que mes amis partage mes sentiments a votre egard, et que si vous venez votre arrivee sera un plaisir pour tous, au contraire si vous ne venez pas votre absence sera pour tout un desappointement. Je vous prie Monsieur d'accepter les assurances demon estime et de mon affection inalterable &c ..... .

Lettre d'invitation

145

25

Reply You know, Sir, that whenever one wishes to take a step of any kind, there are always two personages to consult, Inclination and Duty. Now, when I received your kind invitation, I first consulted Inclination. 30

"Go, • said she, "you will have a great deal of pleasure, you will spend a charming evening, you will enjoy the society and the conversation of those whom you like and who like you. • I was on the point of yielding when Duty spoke: "But you cannot go," said he. "You have already promised to visit such and such persons, to fulfill such and such

35

obligations; in accepting this invitation you will break your promise; do you think that your time is your own? No. It is an asset that belongs to your parishioners, and of which you are only the guardian. You must be thrifty with it, even miserly. Take your pen, thank your friend and tell him that you cannot come. • Thus, Sir, I have obeyed that strict

40

monitor; and if I do not beg you to pardon me, it is because I am convinced that in obeying him I only do what I have to do. Farewell &c ..... .

146

Letter of invitation

Reponse Vous savez Monsieur que lorsqu'on veut faire une demarche quel-

30

conque, il y a toujours deux personnages a consulter, l'Inclination et le Devoir. Or, quandj'ai r~u votre bonne invitationj'ai consulte d'abord l'Inclination •Anez" dit-elle -vous aurez beaucoup de plaisir vous passerez une charmante soiree, vous jouirez de la societe et de Ia conversation de ceux que vous aimez et qui vous aiment. • J'etais sur le point de

35

ceder lorsque le Devoir prit Ia parole •Mais vous ne pouvez-pas aller dit-il Vous avez deja promis de visiter telles et telles personnes de remplir telles et telles obligations; en acceptant cette invitation vous manest querez a votre parole: pensez vous que votre temps !\ts a vous? Non c'est un bien qui appartient avos paroissiens et dont vous n'etes que le

40

gardien; vous devez en etre econome, avare meme: prenez votre plume, remerciez votre ami et dites lui que vous ne pouvez pas venir. • Ainsi Monsieur j 'ai obei ace moniteur severe- et si je ne vous prie pas de me pardonner c'est parceque je suis convaincu qu'en lui obeissant je ne fais que ce que je dois faire

45

Adieu &c ..... .

Lettre d'invitation

147

Comments

The probable instructions for this pair of matching devoirs-compose an invitation to a party, then have the recipient decline it-do not leave much room for self-expression. Still, both sisters used what there was. Emily was making rapid progress as a pianist and was soon to study under Heger's brother-in-law, M. Chapelle, a teacher at the Royal Conservatory.1 Perhaps in exchange, the Hegers asked her to give piano lessons to younger girls whose parents requested that option; Emily reluctantly complied. As Laetitia Wheelwright reported years later, "She taught my three youngest sisters music for 4 months, to my annoyance, as she would only take them in play hours so as not to curtail her own school hours.... "2 Her impatience with inferior performance and her resistance to polite social formulas are visible throughout this devoir, whose brevity may be a further sign of her defiance. Like Emily, the pupil who extends the invitation writes under orders. She addresses her married, adult teacher with respect, but she also keeps her blandishments minimal. At this musical soiree, the participants perform; conversation is not cited as an option. The flattery quotient is low, compared to Charlotte's, and the economics of inducement differ as well. Where Charlotte's petitioner entreats a miser by holding out the hope of

148

mutual profit, Emily's expects her guest to make a contribution in return for having been invited. The extraordinary twist in the penultimate paragraph is somehow typical of Emily. Whether she intended its tactlessness and humor will probably remain a moot question. But as Edward Chitham comments, she "seems to be taking no pains to commend herself personally" to Heger.3 In contrast, Charlotte's letter ingratiates self-consciously. The form of the assignment, request and response, suits her proclivity for dialogue. In both sections, she elaborates on the format, adding questions and answers within the invitation and personification in the answer. Never slow to voice her Protestant principles, she writes in the guise of a male parishioner-insistent, self-abasing, and long-winded. The clergyman's response sustains the economic metaphor and complicates the gender issues further: Inclination, feminine in French, yields to Duty, imperative and masculine. But Charlotte did not invent these personages in response to the assignment Heger gave her. They lingered in her memory from Roe Head. At fifteen, she had written to her new friend, Ellen Nussey, "I am extremely obliged to your Sister for her kind invitation.... But we are often compelled to bend our inclinations to our duty (as Miss Wooler observed the other day)."4 Both devoirs pose problems for the translator. Emily's does not always make full sense in French because its syntax is so anglicized. Charlotte's does not because her urge toward complex French constructions sometimes outstrips her control. For her, each assignment becomes an invitation to reach, however awkwardly, beyond her limitations to gain the treasure of her master's comments.

Letter of Invitation

149

14

Emily Bronte

[Draft before correction]

July 26th 1842

Letter My dear Mama, It seems to me a very long time since I have seen you, and a long

s

time, even, that I have not heard from you. If you were ill, they would have written me; I am not afraid of that, but I am afraid that you think less often of your daughter in her absence. Lately, I am saddened by very little things, and at this thought above all, I cannot help crying. They say that my health is frail, and they have made me keep to my

10

room and give up my studies and my companions. It is perhaps for this so reason that I am"' sad, because it is very tiresome to be confined the whole day in a solitary chamber where I have nothing to do, from morning until night, but to daydream and to listen, from time to time, to the joyous cries of the other children, who play and laugh without thinking of me.

lS

I long to be at home once again, and to see the house and the people that I love so much. At least if you could come here, I believe that your presence alone would cure me. Come then, dear Mama, and forgive this letter; it speaks only of me, but I myself would speak to you of many other things. Your devoted daughter,

20

150

Letter (My dear Mama)

26 Juillet 1842

Emily Bronte

14

Lettre

Ma chere Maman,

11 me semble bien longtemps depuis que je vous aie vue, et longtemps meme, que je n'aie pas

r~u

de vos nouvelles. Si vous etiez

s

malade, on m'ecrirait; je ne crains pas cela, mais je crains que vous songiez moins souvent de votre fille dans son absence; demierement, je suis attriste par de tres petites choses, et

acette idee surtout, je ne

puis m'em¢cher de pleurer. On dit que ma sante est faible, et on m'a fait garder ma chambre et quitter mes etudes et mes compagnes; c'est si peut-etre pour cette raison que je suis... triste, parce qu'il est bien ennu-

10

yeux d'etre enfermee toute la joumee dans un appartement solitaire, ou je n'ai rien

a faire,

du matin jusqu'au soir, que de rever et d'ecouter,

de temps en temps, les cris joyeux des autres enfants, qui jouent et rient sans songer de moi.

15

11 me tarde d'etre chez nous encore une fois, et de voir la maison et les personnes que j'aime tant. Au moins si vous pouviez venir ici, je crois que votre seule presence me guerirait.Venez done, chere Maman, et pardonnez cette lettre; elle ne parle que de moi, mais moi, je vous parlerais de bien d'autres choses. Votre fille devouee,

Lettre (Ma chere Maman)

151

20

Emily Bronte

July 26th 1842

Letter My dear Mama, lltef It is a wiry It seeffts te ffte a YeFf long time since I have seen you, and a long

also since

time e.YM, that I have not heard from you. If you were ill, they would

5

that reassures me a little

have written me; I am not afraid of that, but I am afraid that you think Here, in my exile, it takes only

;;t;Se'nt

less often of your daughter Ut h~k absena~. iaiely, I am saddened by to make me sad; and 11he~~ it eeeNf'S ttl

lite

at the idea that I could be forgotten

yer.y little things 'j and at this thought above all, I cannot help crying. to me here

They sayv that my health is frail; ftftEl they have made me keep to my also

room and give up Imy studies and my companions. It is perhapsvfor this so reason, that I am ... sad,: 8eeattse it is very tiresome to be confined the

10

alone, isolated

there is

exce t

whole dayrin a m!itary chamber where l-ftft¥e nothing to do , from to

Good

,--------

morning tifttH night,v&ttt-te daydream and te listen, from time to time, to the joyous cries of the other children, who play, and laugh without

thinking of me.

15

p

d

I long to be at home, once again, Good

those p~e

at\~

to see again the house and the

that I love se fftl:leh. If At least if you could come here, I believe restore happiness and health.

that your presence alone would cure m~.

ifin

I

Come then, dear Mama; and forgivevthis letter} it ~k~ only of me, come; I have t~

20

blH I myself would speak to you of many other things. Your devoted daughter,

No token of remembrance for papa? C. Heger

that's a mistake.

152

Letter (My dear Mama)

Emily Bronte

26 Juillet 1842

Lettre Ma chere Maman, ~

II y a I'

trop

Ilme semblelHeft longtemps ~pu\s que je vous ail vue, et longaussi

n'ai

s

temps m~. que je n'aie pas r~u de vos nouvelles. Si vous etiez cela me rassure un peul

malade, on m'ecrirait; je ne crains pas cela, mais je crains que vous

7""

1

songiez moins souvent lk votre fille

I

te il me faut ici, kGit absenlte; deriti&rement, pr m 'attrister.- et fl'tJtttl me ·.iettf a

alit~

dans nwn exil, que de

je sl.!H attriste par de tres petites choses, I et acette idee surtout, je ne l'id~e

me 1c1

qu'on m'oublie

puis m'emp&:her de pleurer. Onvdi(que rna sante est faible;

~on

m'a

fait garder rna chambre et quitter Imes etudes et mes compagnes; c'est

10

si

aussi

peut-etrevpour cette raison, que je suis"triste,: pMee EJ:H'il est bien ennuseule, isolee

yeux d'etre enfermee toute Ia joumeefdans un illmartement ~itaire. ou ane

, - - - - - - - - - , sinon

lje-tt'ai rien ~ faire 1, du matin ~u soir; Ej:lle-6e rever et &!ecouter,

Bon

de temps en temps, les crisjoyeux des autres enfants, quijouent, et rient

a

sans songer s1£ moi.

15

de rentrer

11 me tarde d'etre chez nous. encore une fois, e\ de revoir Ia maison tous ceux

Bon

et l~s ~es que j 'aime timt. Si Au moins ki vous pouviez venir ici, rendrait joie et sante.

je crois que votre seule presence me guerirait.-

si dans

je

Venez done, chere Maman; et pardonnezvcette lettre}..eHe ~le vema.; j'ai d j

que de moi, mitis mei, je vous parlerftis de bien d'autres choses. Votre fille devouee,

Aucune marque de souvenir pr papa

C. Heger c'est une faute.

Lettre (Ma chere Maman)

153

20

Comments

Emily Bronte wrote three successive devoirs on relationships among family members; this is the first and the shortest. It is also the only text from Brussels or Haworth that brings a daughter into contact with her mother, if only to reveal the space between them. When Emily was three years old, her own mother died, after seven months of lying close to death. Patrick Bronte withdrew in grief, emerging as a concerned but hard-pressed parent to his six children. Although Maria, the eldest, tried to act as a mother and Aunt Branwell came from Penzance to supervise the household, Emily learned autonomy early. Her letter writer complains of languishing in solitude (perhaps, as Margaret Romans says, in quarantine ). 1 She herself found solitude essential. But sequestered in the pensionnat, cut off from Haworth and the moors, she must have suffered agonies of homesickness. 2 Her health held up, however; she did not become an invalid; stoic resolution kept her going. The weak and plaintive child of the devoir is a construct, achieved despite the limits of the author's French. Emily may have been writing to order, rather than using her letter as a medium for a more personal appeal. Poems about suffering female innocents seem to have been staples of Heger's teaching; Charlotte wrote

154

"The Sick Young Girl" on April18 in response to "The Poor Girl," which he dictated. But the interval of three months suggests that the sisters were not fulfilling the same assignment-unless Heger waited until Emily had learned sufficient French to respond to Soumet's verses. Or she may have been drawing on her Gondal saga, in which, according to Fanny Ratchford, adversity separates children from their parents or leaves them to imprisonment and suffering.3 In her other extant writings, however, she shows contempt for characters who lack the resources to sustain themselves, whether they are children or adults. Absence is very much the theme of the devoir. The letter writer suffers from loss of health and homesickness; she dreads being out of others' thoughts. The mother she addresses is both literally distant and missing as an individual separate from the daughter, who focuses almost exclusively on her own illness, deprivation, and desires. All the other references to people are generic-"they," "my companions," "other children," "persons"-and as Heger notes, there is no sign of a father. He has corrected her short page extensively, perhaps an indication of his interest in her progress, or in family sentiment, or both. His changes make her language more idiomatic but sacrifice its childlike directness. Five years later, on her own territory, Emily created young Linton Heathcliff, another self-absorbed and fretful invalid. Though by then she must have given little conscious thought to devoirs, perhaps their traces did not fade entirely.4

Letter (My dear Mama)

155

15

August 5th

Emily I. Bronte

Filial Love

•Honor thy father and thy mother if thou wouldst live. • It is by such a commandment that God gives us knowledge of the baseness of our 5

race, of how it appears in His sight. To fulfill the gentlest, the holiest of all duties man must be threatened; it is through fear that the maniac must be forced to sanctify himself. In this commandment is hidden a more bitter .reproach than any open accusation could contain, a charge against us of absolute blindness or of infernal ingratitude.

10

Parents love their children; this is a principle of nature. The doe does not fear the dogs when her little one is in danger; the bird dies on its nest. This instinct is a particle of the divine spirit we share with every animal that exists. Has God not put a similar feeling into the heart of the child? Truly there is something of the kind, yet still the voice of

15

thunder cries out, •Honor your parents or you will die!• Now, that commandment is not given, that threat is not added, for nothing. There may be men who scorn their happiness, their duty, and their God to such a point that the spark of heavenly fire dies out in their breast, leaving them a moral chaos without light and without order, a hideous transfig-

20

uration of the image in which they were created.

These monsters, the virtuous soul does well to shun with horror. It is a just instinct; we must shun them, but do not curse them. Why add our malediction to God's? Rather pity, rather lament their condition.

25

For they have never given a thought to what their parents have done for to them them. For the memory of their youth has never recalled "' the hopes and affection of the father they disobey; and the long hours of patient suffer-

156

Filial Love

Emily J. Bronte

5 Aotit

15

L' Amour Filial

"Tu honoreras ton pere etta

m~re

si tu veux vivre•. C'est par un tel

commandement que Dieu nous donne une connaissance de la bassesse de notre race, de ce qu'elle parait a ses yeux; pour remplir le plus doux, le

s

plus saint de tousles devoirs illui faut une menace; c'est par peur qu'il faut forcer la maniaque a benir elle-meme. Dans cette commandement est cache un reproche plus amer qu'aucune accusation ouverte ne puisse renfermer, une charge contre nous, d' aveuglement en tier ou d'ingratitude infemale.

10

Les parents aiment leurs enfants, c'est un principe de la nature; la daine ne craint pas les chiens lorsque son petit est en danger, l'oiseau meurt sur son nid; cet instinct est une particule de l'!me divine que nous partageons avec tout animal qui existe, et Dieu n-a-t-il pas mis dans le coeur de l'enfant un pareil sentiment? Quelque chose vraiment il y a et

IS

cependant la voix tonnante leur erie: "Honorez vos parents ou vous mourerez!• Or, ce commandement n'est pas donne, cette menace n'est pas ajoutee pour rien: il peut etre des hommes qui meprisent leur bonheur, leur devoir et leur Dieu ace point que l'etincelle de feu celeste s'eteint dans leur sein, et les laisse un chaos moral sans lumi~re et sans

20

ordre, une transfiguration hidieuse de l'image dans laquelle ils etaient crees. Ces monstres, l'Ame verteuse est portee d'eviter avec horreur. C'est un instinct juste, nous devons les eviter, mais ne les maudissez pas. pourquoi ajouter notre malediction a celle de Dieu? PlutOt plaignez, plutOt pleurez leur condition. C'est qu'ils n'aientjamais pense de ce que leurs parents ont fait pour eux. C'est que la memoire de leurs jeunes ans leur ne' ...a jamais rappele les esperances et !'affection de ce pere qu'ils L'Amour Filial

157

2S

ing, the cares, the tears, the untiring devotion of the mother whom they kill by the cruelest of deaths, turning to poison the limitless love that should be the sustenance of her unhappy old age.

30

The hour will come when conscience will awake; then there will be a terrible retribution. What mediator will plead then for the criminal? It is God who accuses him. What power will save the wretch? It is God

who condemns him. He has rejected happiness in mortal life to assure himself of torment in eternal life. 35

Let angels and men weep for his fate - he was their brother.

158

Filial Love

desobeissent; et les longues heures de patiente souffrance, les soins, les larmes Ia devotion infatigable de cette mere qu'ils tuent par Ia plus

30

cruelle des morts, tournant en poison l'amour illimite qui doit etre Ia nourriture de sa malheureuse viellesse. L'heure viendra quand Ia conscience s'evleillera, alors il aura une retribution terrible; quel mediateur plaidera alors pour le criminel? C'est Dieu qui l'accuse; QueUe puissance sauvera le miserable? c'est Dieu qui le condamne. II a rejete le bonheur dans Ia vie mortelle pour s'assurer du tourment dans Ia vie eternelle. Que les anges et les hommes pleurent son sort - il etait leur frere.

L'Amour Filial

159

35

Comments

Shut from his Maker's smile The accursed man shall be Compassion reigns a little while Revenge eternally-Emily Bronte 1

On August 5, ten days before the long vacation and ten days after "My dear Mother," Emily finished "Filial Love" and "Letter from one brother to another." No instructions accompany these devoirs, and nothing in Charlotte's notebooks corresponds to this one, although she did write an earlier essay entitled "Ingratitude," now missing. Emily could have been fulfilling a series of linked assignments on the family, but these pieces do not form an easy triptych. The first half of "The Butterfly," submitted six days later, is closer to "Filial Love" in mood and imagery, and factors that have nothing to do with the topic could account for the dates of their production. As the end of term neared, Emily might have realized that she still owed Heger second drafts of old papers and produced them in a flurry of activity. 2

160

Whatever Heger called for, Emily's response could hardly have been what he expected. As her starting point, she takes the Fifth Commandment: "Honor thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee. "3 Her paraphrase, however, replaces the incentive of the King James version with a threat. An exegesis follows, as grim as any Calvinist sermon that could have marked her childhood. How might she have come to her position? Tom Winnifrith proposes several possible sources for the young Brontes' views of eternal punishment: Patrick Bronte, Carus Wilson, Henry Nussey, and Edward Robinson, whose library contained an "impressive array of Evangelical sermons."4 Any one of these men might also have preached or written of children's relations to their parents. Certainly, the parallels between this devoir and Calvin's sermon on the Fifth Commandment suggest that at some point Emily heard judgments on filial ingratitude that stayed with her: "Now it is quite a detestable thing, as well as contrary to nature, for a child not to acknowledge those through whom he came into the world, those who have fed and clothed him. Therefore when a child disowns his father and his mother, he is a monster. Everyone will look upon him with disgust. And why? [Because] without God speaking a word, without our having any holy Scripture, or anyone preaching to us, nature already shows us that a child's duty toward his father and mother is one which cannot be broken. "5 There is also a suggestion of Wesleyan theology in the two questions at the end of the devoir, which correspond in form to a biblical passage that underlies the Doctrine of Justification: "Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth. Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ ... who also maketh intercession for us." 6 But if Emily's language echoes the text Wesley drew on, her purpose, unlike his, is to accuse. Her wretches reverse the order of creation, casting themselves from light into darkness7 and behaving with maniacal unreason. In short, whatever her debt to such doctrines, she also redefines them to make them congruent with a harsher personal theology. Inflexible judgments of the human condition are characteristic of her devoirs. But the ending of this one is uncharacteristic in its fracturing of narrative consistency. Unlike Charlotte, Emily usually pursues her top-

Filial Love

161

ics with undeviating logic. The rhetorical patterns are clear and consistent: effect follows cause, examples illustrate ideas, and conclusions reflect back on openings. So a daughter starts by speaking of a mother's long absence and ends by imploring her to come; a king experiences moments of insight and, as a result, becomes heroic. This devoir progresses reasonably enough from an issue (filial love corrupted in humans), to an outcome (monsters of ingratitude), and then to a further issue (how should we regard them?) and its outgrowth (God will take charge; pity them). But when "they" gives way to "him" in the penultimate paragraph, or even with the anguished mother in the line above, the narrative abruptly turns personal. The object of her questions is no generic outcast: he is an unsalvageable brother. Has she heard something new about Branwell? Has she recalled some character from Gondal? In "Lines," a poem she wrote in 1839, the speaker wonders whether an "iron man," known from childhood and since turned criminal, has become "So lost that not a gleam may come I No vision of his mother's face." After a single glance at him, however, the speaker gives up hope for his redemption. 8 Janet Gezari conjectures that this poem transposes news of Branwell to a Gondal episode;9 perhaps a similar transposition occurs at the end of "Filial Love," but the clues are much too slim to be reliable.

162

Filial Love

~~-~~ _,.z:t%.~

!!J:;.'

~ At ~

v c,.. ~

~~

?

lit Neva. Neither marble, nor stone, nor precious wood, nor gilding, were to be seen there. Winter had been very good

idea

the architect, and he had drawn its materials from the bosom of an icy chandelier

sea. No ~ shone there, but a pale and bluish moonlight made visible domes, columns, and vaults L___j,... carved in ice. The counselors of Death

40

were ranked in order before her throne. Perhaps it was light reflected from

the~

walls that imparted to their ti~s a certain deathly pallor,

and it was undoubtedly the importance of the question they were going to decide that made them keep a singularly profound silence. Never had been seen a more sage assembly; the statues that populate a church are

45

neither more motionless, nor less talkative. Death entered and sat upon her throne; she arrived noiselessly; it was had

as if a shadow passed across the crowd. A large veil concealed her features and her form, but, when she raised her scepter to signal the candito let pass the hand and

so

dates to approach, the folds of the veil half-opened to reveal vthe arm of a skeleton. you do well to make her the first -

an First to put herself forward was Ambition, imposing woman with a broad forehead and eyes aglitter with burning fire, bu\ her whole aspect

Why flte.jWt?

and all her movements lacked calm and dignity.

ss

f'H/1ff

"Mighty Sovereign, • said she, "I am a fai\hful """""" laborer ....,.,...,... in these fields; wherever I have sown seeds in the earth, it offers a rich harvest to your

218

The Palace of Death (CB)

la. temps Ia Mort s'aper~ut que son empire desert commen~ait h se peupler, que chaque jour il y entrait de nouveaux habitants. La vieillesse se de tous plaignit, il ne voulut pas se charger de touta les jeunes gens et-. les chaque

enfants que quelque peste ou quelque massacre lui jour~;

~

tous les

enfin Ia Mort se trouva dans Ia necessite de choisir un premier

ministre; aussitOt qu'elle

annon~a

30 cherchez le sens de ce mot.

pourquoi?

son intention, plusieurs candidats

l brigu~rent ~a

preference. convoqua

Avant d'I decider elle ~ un conseil dans son palais. Cet edifice ressemblait h celui que le caprice d'un souverain du Nord fit construire

on d~cide une chose 35 on se d~cide a...

de la

sur les rives au !>all Neva. On n'y voyait ni marbre, ni pierre ni bois precieux, ni dorure; l'Hiver en avait ete l'architecte et il avait tire ses lustre • lampe

id~e

tres bonne

materiaux du sein d'une mer glaciale: nul chandelier n'y brillait, mais un ~

clair de lune pAle et bleuitre faisait voir des dOmes, des colomnes et des

40

obj.[?] volltes 1 taillis 1 ~

glace Les conseillers de Ia Mort etaient ranges en ordre

devant son trOne; c'etait peut-~tre le reflet des murs froids qui communiquait

'""""

a leur tei~e une certaine pAleur mortelle et c'etait sans doute

}'importance de Ia question qu'ils allaient decider qui la faisait gard£ un silence

singuli~rement

profond: jamais on n'a vu une assemblee plus

45

sage; les statues qui peuplent une eglise ne sont ni plus immobiles, ni moins causeuses. La Mort entra et s'assit sur son trOne; elle arriva sans bruit; c'etait eat

~

comme si une ombre passait atravers Ia foule; un grand voile cachait ses traits et sa forme, mais, lorsqu'elle leva son sceptre pour faire signe aux

so

pr. laisser passer une main et

candidats de s'approcher, les plis du voile s'entreouvrirent et on vit • un bras de squelette. Premi~rement

une se presenta 1' Ambition, femme auguste au front large,

aux yeux etincelants d'un feu ardent, ma\s tout son aspect et tous ses

ss

mouvements manquaient de calme et de dignite. lff8is66ttttt!M,

•souveraine puissante• dit-elle, •Je suisun fiCl~le ...,....,...,. laboureur .,...,..,...,.. dans ces champs; partout ou j'ai ensemence Ia terre, elle offre une riche moisson Le Palais de Ia Mort (CB)

vousfaites Bien Ide la placer la lrePourquoi ffi.-He?

219

scythe; once my influence has slipped into a man's heart, he no longer regards the life of his fellow creatures as a precious thing that he must not touch; all the affections, friendship, love, flee at my approach; aftti discord, hatred, envy, conspiracy, treason follow me. • As she pro-

60 look up the meaning of this word

nounced these words, a long

~

of sinister phantoms gllc'l wearing

masks, daggers, and black cloaks glided across the room. They seemed to pass through the vitreous wall and, in vanishing, left traces of blood in their steps. "Those are my children, • said ambition. "If today you choose me as minister, tomorrow I will send them among &H the peoples

6S

glutted

of the earth, and very soon your empire will be

~with

inhabitants. •

Death did not answer. She raised her scepter a second time and a Why an Amazon?

new candidate was introduced. It was a form of Amazon, garbed like Thalestris in a scarlet robe, short and tucked up; she bore a bow in her hand and a quiver over her shoulder; she led on a leash two huge dogs,

70

ferocious as two wolves; the features of this woman resembled those of brandish } wave about look up this word

a man; her bearing was proud and bold; her muscular arm appeared strong enough to

~

the lance of an Achilles. "I am War!" said

she. "I come from a battlefield; my garments are still stained with the made

blood I

7S

have~

flow. Who can serve you more faithfully than I, oh

Death? Who has led more victims to your feet? When I unleash Mason

G

sacre and Carnage &ftef the human race (and she pointed to the fierce beasts she held on the leash) the moans of widows and cries of orphans announce your victory. • How? that was worth a word.

80

ed

Death smiled, War's speech seemffig to please her; she was going to """"' there entered make her choice, when the door opened and " a third candidate eltletec'l, a young, fair, and richly dressed woman. She had an air so gay, a step had

so jaunty, coloring so vivid, that at first sight one would have said that Health herself had entered the palace of Death. But upon examining her 8S

closely, one realized that jllly ~ rather than joy shone in her eyes,

220

The Palace of Death (CB)

avotre faux; aussit6t que mon influence s'est glissee dans le coeur d'un homme, il ne regarde plus la vie de ses semblables comme une chose precieuse alaquelle il ne doit pas toucher; toutes les affections, l'amitie,

60

l'amour, s'enfuient a mon approche; et la discorde, la haine, l'envie, la conspiration, la trahison me suivent.• Tandis qu'elle mots, un long

~

de fant6mes sinistres

gm~

pronon~t

ces

portant le masque, le

poignard et le manteau noir glissaient a travers la salle; ils semblerent

cherchez le sens de ce mot. [?]

passer par la muraille vitreuse et en disparaissant, ils laiss!rent des traces

65

de sang sur leurs pas. "Ce sont mes enfants• dit l'ambition "Si aujourd'hui vous me choisissez pour ministre, demainje les enverrai parmi toils regorgera

les peuples de la terre, et bient6t votre empire~ d'habitants.• La Mort ne repondit pas, elle leva son sceptre une seconde fois et un fut

nouveau candidat etait introduit C'etait une forme d' Amazone, vetue

'"""'"

Pourquoi 10 une tuiiJlZone

comme Thalestre en robe ecarlate, courte et retroussee, elle portait un arc

a la main et un carquois sur l'epaule;

elle menait en laisse deux

grands chiens feroces comme deux loups; les traits de cette femme ressemblaient aceux d'un homme, son maintien etait fier et hardi; son bras musculeux paraissait assez fort pour brandiller la lanced 'un Achille. ~

fhrandir lbrandiller cherchez ce mot, [?]

75

"Je suis la Guerre!• dit-elle "J'arrive d'un champ~ de bataille, mes vetefait

ments sont encore teints du sang que j'ai ~ couler. Qui peut te servir plus fidelement que moi, 6 Mort? qui a mene plus de victimes a tes sur

pieds?, quand je lAche &pres le genre humain le Massacre et le Carnage, (et elle montra les betes feroces qu'elle tenait en laisse) les plaintes des

B 80

veuves et les cris des orphelins annoncent ta victoire. • Comment? cela meritait un mot.) La Mort sourit, le~ discours de la Guerre semJ21am lui plaire, elle

son"' il entra allait ~era choix, lorsque Ia porte s'ouvrit et"" un troisieme candidat eit\ka; une femme jeune, belle, et richement vetue: elle avait I'air si gai,

Ia demarche si Iegere, les couleurs si vives, qu'au premier abord on eflt

-

aurait dit que Ia Sante elle-meme s'etait introduite dans le palais de Ia e

-

Mort. Mais lorsqu'on l'examina de pres on s'aper~ut que Ia }l!l\e delire

Le Palais de Ia Mort (CB)

221

85

complexion

look up

that fever colored her .tint, and that disorder characterized her whole

[?]

attire. Her disheveled head was crowned with a garland of flowers; those flowers seemed fresh and fair, but among the petals, twisted in the Good

stems, one saw a serpent glitter. 90

Intemperance (for thus was this enchantress named) stepped proudly before Ambition and War. "I claim my right, • said she. "For one victim that my rivals have sacrificed on the altars of Death, I can easily count a hundred.• DWb arose. "My sister, • said she, "you alone are worthy of being

9S

DWb's viceroy. War and Ambition are but your children; all the demons that destroy man are born of you, and it is from your intoxicating cup that the human race drinks the ~ of its dax_s.

222

The Palace of Death (CB)

son teint

plutOt que la joie brillait dans ses yeux, que le fievre colorait a

~.

cherchez [?]

que le desordre caracterisait toute sa mise; sa tete echevelee etait couronnee d'une guirlande de fleurs; ces fleurs paraissaient fraiches et

90

Bon

belles, mais entre les petales, entortille dans les tiges on voyait luire un serpent. L'Intemperance (car c'etait ainsi que s'appellait cette enchanteresse passall fierement devant 1' Ambition et la Guerre. •Je reclame mon droit" dit-elle •Pour une victime que mes rivales ont sacrifiee sur les

95

en

autels de la Mort, je puis bien compter cent,:. La Mort se leva, •Ma soeur• dit-elle; "toi seule es digne d'etre la vice-reine de la M2It- LaGuerre et 1' Ambition ne sont que tes enfants; tousles demons qui perdent l'homme naissent de toi, et c'est dans ta coupe enivrante que le genre humain boit le ~ ~·

Le Palais de Ia Mort (CB)

223

100

22

Emily J. Bronte

October 18th -42

Theme. The Palace of Death. Theme

In times past, when . . . . Death had something to do; her sole minister was then Old Age, but before long . . . . . . and Death had so much

s

business then that she wanted to appoint a prime minister. Assembly in her palace; all the purveyors of Death are seen arriving; each one justifies his claim; her majesty Death seeming extremely perwhen the door opens plexed " and a beauty . . . . . description of Intemperance . . . . Death chooses her as viceroy and dismisses the assembly saying ....

The Palace of Death.

10

In times past, when men were few in number, Death lived frugally and husbanded her means. Her sole minister then was old age, who guarded the gate of her palace and from time to time admitted a solitary victim to appease the hunger of her mistress. ~his abstinence was s~n recompensed;'{ter majesty's prey increased pr,digiously and Old Ag\began to

15

find that \she had too much to do.

It was at this time that Death decided to change her way of living, to

appoint new agents, and to take a prime minister. On the day set for the nomination, the silence of the somber palace was broken by the arrival of candidates from all quarters; the vaults, the

20

chambers, and the galleries resounded with the noise of steps that came Good

and went, as if the bones that lay strewn about the pavement had suddenly come back to life; and Death, looking down from the height of her throne, smiled hideously to see what multitudes hastened to serve her.

25

Among the first arrivals were Wrath and Vengeance, who hurried to 224

The Palace of Death (EB)

Emily J. Bronte

22

Le 18. octobre -42

Matiere. Le palais de Ia Mort. Mati~re

Autrefois, lorsque . . . . La Mort avait quelquechose afaire; son unique ministre etait alors la Vieillesse, mais bientOt . . . . . . et La Mort avait

s

tant d'affaires alors qu'elle voulut prendre un premier ministre. Assemblee dans son palais; on voit arriver tous les pourvoyeurs de sa · la Mort; chacun fait valoir sOn titre; sa majeste La Mort paraissait fort lors2ue Ia porte s'ouvre embarrassee et une beaute . . . . . description de !'Intemperance ... . La Mort la choisit pour vice-roi et congedie l'assemblee en disant ... .

Le Palais de la Mort.

10

Autrefois, lorsque les hommes etaient un petit nombre, la Mort vivait frugalement et

~ns;

son unique ministre etait alors Ia

vieillesse, qui gardait Ia porte de son palais et introduisait de temps en temps une victime solitaire pour apaiser Ia faim de sa maitresse~cette

Jut

abstin,ce ~tait bientOt r~om~n~; Ia proie de sa majeste s'augme tait prodigie,sement et Ia Vieilles::mmen¢t a trouver qu'elle avait

15

p

a faire. :Q..e~ acette epoque que Ia Mort se decida achanger sa maniere de vivre, aappointer des agents nouveaux et aprendre un premier ministre. Le jour fixe pour Ia nomination le silence du sombre palais fut rompu

20

par l'arrivee des candidats de tous cOtes, les voutes, les chambres et les galeries resonnaient du bruit des pas qui allaient et venaient, comme si les ossements qui jonchaient leur pave s'etaient subitement reanimes et

Bon

Ia Mort, regardant du haut de son trOne, sourit hid\eusement de voir quelles multitudes accouraient alui servir. Parmi les premiers venus on voyait Ia Colere et la Vengeance qui allerent se mettre en face de sa

Le Palais de Ia Mort (EB)

225

25

about

station themselves before her Majesty, loudly arguing "' the justice of their particular rights. Envy and Treason took their positions behind in the shadow. Famine and Plague, attended by their companions Sloth and Avarice, secured very convenient places in the crowd and cast a scornful eye over the other guests. Nonetheless they were forced to give way

30

when Ambition and Fanaticism appeared; the retinues of those two personages filled the council chamber, and they imperiously demanded an immediate audience. "I doubt not," said the former, "that your majesty will be fair in her decision, but why waste time in vain disputes when a glance will suffice

35

to determine the one who is alone worthy of the office in question? Who are all these pretenders who besiege your throne? What can they do in your service? The ablest among them is no more capable of governing your empire than is a soldier, with no quality other than his courage, of commanding an army. They know how to strike one victim here and

40

Good

another there; they know how to entrap feeble prey, the men on whom those are

your mark has been visible since birth, and \Ita\

\~

the limits of their

usefulness; as for me, I will lead the elite of the race to your portals, those who are furthest from your power. I will harvest them in their 45

flower and offer them to you as troops at the same stroke. Besides, I have so many means; it is not the sword alone that wins my victories; I have other agents, secret but powerful allies. Fanatacism himself is but an instrument that I shall employ for my profit. •

On hearing these words, Fanaticism shook his savage head, and 50

raising toward Death an eye burning with the fire of obsession, he began: "I know this blusterer will happily borrow my weapons and march under my banners, but is that any reason fl9r that she should presume to compare herself with me? Not only will I be as powerful as she at overstates

turning rialm~ and desolating realms, but I will enter into families; I will

226

The Palace of Death (EB)

sur

Majeste, en disputant hautement" Ia justice de leurs droits particuliers;

""""

L'Envie et Ia Trahison prirent leurs stations derriere dans l'ombre; Ia Famine et Ia Peste, assistees par leurs compagnes Ia Paresse et l' Avarice, obtinrent des places tres commodes parmi Ia foule et jeterent un regarde

30

meprisant sur les autres Mtes; cependant elles se trouverent forcees a ceder quand l' Ambition et le Fanatisme paraissaient; les corteges de ces deux personnages emplissaient Ia salle de conseil et ils demanderent imperieusement une audience prompte. "Je ne doute pas, • dit Ia premiere, •que votre majeste sera juste

35

dans sa decision mais a quoi bon consumer le temps en vaines contestations quand un coup-d'oeil suffira a determiner celle qui est seule digne de l'office en question? Quels sont tous ces pretendants qui assiegent votre trOne? Que peuvent ils faire dans votre service? Le plus habile parmi eux n'est pas plus capable de gouvemer votre empire qu'un

40

soldat qui n' a d' autre qualite que son courage, de commander une armee. Ils savent frapper une victime ici et une autre Ia; ils savent a~r Ia

Bon

faible proie, les hommes sur lesquels votre signe est visible depuis leur ce sont

naissance, et etla eli\ les limites de leur utilite; tandis que moi, je menerai avos portes I'elite de Ia race; ceux qui sont les plus eloignes de

45

Ia

votre pouvoir; je les moissonerai dans ltur fleur et vous les offrirai par troupes a Ia fois. Puis j'ai tant de moyens; il n'est pas le glaive seul qui gagne mes victoires; j'ai d'autres agents, des allies secrets mais puissants; le Fanatisme lui-m~me n'est qu'un instrument que j'emploierai a

so

me servir." En entendant ces mots le Fanatisme secoua sa t~te sauvage et levant a

vers la Mort un oeil brulant du feu de la manie il commenca: "Je sttis que cette glorieuse sera aise d'emprunter mes armes et de marcher sous mes enseignes, mais est cela une raison ;Gflk qu'elle presume a se comparer je serai avec moi? Non seulement sttis }e puissant comme elle a renverser les 6tats

ktoyaflmeli et a desoler les royaumes, mais j'entrerai dans les families Le Palais de Ia Mort (EB)

227

ss

55

by me set the son against the father, the daughter against the mother; inspired... the faithful friend will become a mortal enemy, the wife will betray her husband, the domestic his master. No sentiment can withstand me; I will banners traverse the earth beneath heaven's Uih.[?] and crowns will be as stones

60

beneath my feet. As for the other candidates, they are unworthy of barbarism attention; Wrath is i~able; vengeance is partial; Famine can be conquered by industry; Plague is capricious. Your prime minister must be someone who is always close to men, who surrounds and possesses them. Decide then between Ambition and me; we are the only ones bemight

tween whom your choice can hesitate. • 65

Fanaticism fell silent, and her Majesty seemed to waver in doubt between these two rivals when the door of the hall opened, and there entered a person before whom everyone fell back in astonishment, for she had a figure that seemed to glow with joy and health, her step was as light as a zephyr, and Death herself appeared uneasy at her first

70

approach; however, she soon reassured herself. "You recognize me," the stranger said to her; "I arrive later than the others, but I know that my claim is certain. Some of my rivals are formidable, I admit, and I may perhaps be surpassed by several in striking deeds that draw the admiration of the mob, but I have a friend before whom this whole assembly

75

will be forced to succumb. Her name is Civilization:

G. i~s

she

will come to dwell on this earth with us, and each century will amplify her power. In the end, she will divert Ambition from your service; she will put the brake of law on wrath; she will wrest the weapons from confine Fanaticism's hands; she will chase Famine off among the savages. I 80

alone will grow and flourish under her reign; the power of all the others will expire with their partisans; mine will exist even when I am dead.

If once I make acquaintance with the father, my influence will extend to the son, and before men unite to banish me from their society, I will have changed their entire nature and made the whole species an easier

228

The Palace of Death (EB)

par moi j'opposerai le fils au pere, Ia fille a Ia mere; inspires... l'ami fidele dea

viendr(l)it\ un ennemi mortel, Ia femme trahira son marl, le domestique son maitre; nul sentiment ne peut me resister; je traverserai Ia terre sous banni~res

les lam[?] du ciel et les couronnes seront commes des pierres sous mes

60

pieds. Quant aux autres candidats ils ne sont pas dignes d'attention; Ia barbarisme

Colere est irrrunable; Ia vengeance est partiale; Ia Famine peut ~tre vaincue par l'industrie; Ia Peste est capricieuse. Votre premier ministre doit ~tre quelqu'un qui est toujours pres des hommes, qui les entoure et les possede; decidez done entre 1' Ambition et moi, nous sommes les seuls

65

puisse

sur lesquels votre choix peut hesiter. • Le Fanatisme se tut, et sa Majeste semblait balancer en doute entre

ces deux rivaux lorsque Ia porte de Ia salle s'ouvrit et il y entra une personne devant laquelle tout le monde recula en etonnement car elle avait une figure qui paraissait rayonner de joie et de sante, son pas etait

70

Ieger comme un zephyr et Ia Mort e1Ie-m~me semblait inquiete a sa premiere approche; cependant elle se rassura bientOt: "Vous me connaissez: lui dit l'etrangere, "je viens plus tardt que les autres mais je sais que~ cause est sftre. Quelqu'uns de mes rivaux sont formidables j'avoue et il

-~.

est possible que je sois surpassee par plusieurs en faits eclatants qui

75

attirent }'admiration du vulgaire, maisj'ai une amie devant laquelle toute cette assemblee sera forcee a succomber; elle se nomme Ia Civil~tion: B.

e~ees

elle viendra habiter cette terre avec nous et chaque

siecle augmentera son pouvoir. A Ia fin elle detournera I' Ambition de votre service; elle jetera ~ Ia colere le frein de Ia loi; elle arrachera les

80

confinera

armes des mains du Fanatisme; elle chassera Ia Famine parmi les sauvages: moi seule j'agrandirai et fleurirai sous son regne; Ia puissance de tous les autres expirera avec leurs partisans; Ia mienne existera lorsque m~me j~rte.

Si une fois je fais connaissance avec le pere mon

influence s'etendra au fils et avant que les hommes s'unissent pour me bannir de leur societe j'aurai change toute leur nature et rendue I' espece Le Palais de Ia Mort (EB)

229

85

8S

prey for your Majesty, so effectively, in fact, that Old Age will have almost a sinecure and your palace will be gorged with victims. • "Say no more, • said Death, descending from her throne and embracing Intemperance (for that was the stranger's name). "It is enough that I know you. For the others, I have lucrative and important offices; they will all

90

be my ministers, but for you alone is reserved the honor of being my viceroy.•

230

The Palace of Death (EB)

enti~re un

plus facile proie avotre Majeste, si effectivement en effet, que

la Vieillesse aura presque une sinecure et votre palais sera gorge de victimes. • "Ne parlez plus, • dit la Mort descendant de son tr6ne et embrassant l'Intemperance (c'est ainsi que l'etrang~re s'appelait) "il suffit que je vous connais; pour les autres j'ai des offices lucratifs et importants, ils seront tous mes ministres, mais

a vous seule est reserve l'honneur

d'etre mon vice-roi. •

Le Palais de Ia Mort (EB)

231

90

Comments

These devoirs provide direct evidence of Heger's mode of instruction: both sisters took down his topic outline, which they were then expected to develop. Probably they sat side by side in the classroom while Heger dictated in curt phrases. 1 They must have listened closely to get the terms right; perhaps they compared guidelines or conferred about their claimants.2 Still, their responses take widely different tacks, not because they disregard the terms of the assignment, but because they remain such different writers. Curiously, neither of the previous translators considered the role of the "Matiere." Dorothy Cornish omitted the contents page from Charlotte's, published in 1952 in English only,3 and in any case she could not have known about its counterpart, which only arrived in England two years later. Margaret Lane also left out the contents of Emily's when she read her translation of that text in 1954 on the sac's Third Programme. Emily, she claimed, had made her "own choice" of subject, though perhaps Branwell's intemperance had impressed her. 4 A couple of Lane's listeners suggested English sources, including "The Court of Death," a fable by John Gay,5 but it did not occur to them, or to Lane, that in a Brussels pensionnat the source of Emily's devoir might be French. Even

232

when Lane's version was reprinted with the outline,6 no attention was paid to its significance. In 1967 J. M. Maxwell finally put the pieces together. Both sisters, he pointed out, had written devoirs based on Emily's "introductory material." He also cited a French source for her introduction: "La Mort" in Jean-Pierre Florian's Fables (1792). Florian's rhyming lines describe a gathering in hell for the purpose of choosing Death's prime minister; the contenders include Fever, Gout, War, Plague, a doctor, and finally Intemperance, whom she picks. Maxwell did not claim that this was Heger's "precise source," since it omits both Old Age and Ambition.' But he was unaware that Heger touched up his sources and sometimes took ideas from several.8 Heger had paternal and professional reasons for browsing through fable collections. He was then the father of four children under six (Marie Pauline, the oldest, had turned five in September) and, by all accounts, enjoyed the role of papa. He chose to teach the youngest class of boys at the Athenee, the level following primary school, and he had a reputation as a speaker who could spellbind students of all ages. Perhaps he found a volume in a local bookstore with a version of "La Mort" that included Old Age and set the gathering in a palace, unlike Florian's; or perhaps he supplemented Florian's version, which in other ways anticipates his. Florian's meter tends to jiggle and particulars are scanty, but Heger needed only an outline and a venue that older students would not find too childish. He apparently succeeded, since even the resistant Emily took to this assignment. Several factors might explain her willingness. Death was a topic that could always lure her, even in a fairytale guise. Neither she nor Charlotte had outgrown their own mythologies; both remained engaged, if not submerged, in juvenilia. Charlotte was trying to get away from Angria, and Emily's grinding studies left her little time for Gondal, but the fable was a genre that could bridge the space between these homemade cycles and the classroom. Another genre, allegory, also links these devoirs to more familiar reading at the parsonage. Charlotte grew up on Pilgrim lProgress and later incorporated it, and allegory, into her four adult novels. Whether Emily read Bunyan too remains uncertain; her poems suggest the genre was well known to her. 9 Not least, the contents opened a

The Palace of Death

233

channel for dissent. She could voice a satirist's contempt for vice and folly and give fantasy its own internal logic. Nothing in her devoir is extrinsic to its arguments, and little derives from outside sources. The specters whose footsteps rattle in the chambers probably owe something to Gondal's court and dungeon scenes or to Gothic fiction read in adolescence. 10 Wrath, Sloth, and Avarice are among the seven deadly sins, while Famine, Plague, and Vengeance have biblical resonance. But these personifications are subordinate to more inventive evils. Nominally, Emily follows Heger's outline in making Intemperance the winner. But Intemperance remains unnamed until Death embraces her, a strategy congruent with insidious infiltration, and speaks as the confederate of Civilization, the evil Emily chooses to make paramount. Unlike Charlotte, she limits description of the claimants to animating touches; she elaborates instead on their methods, their rejoinders, and the scourging consequences of their actions. Parallel construction and imagery carry her ideas but never overwhelm them. Charlotte's devoir, in contrast, keys into her penchant for representation and tableau. Her descriptions of the claimants recall methods she developed and practiced in her juvenilia. 11 They also presage Jane Eyre's barbed portraits of the company that gathers at Thornfield. 12 Characteristically, she pauses in the action to picture form, costume, and physiog-

nomy. Whereas Emily's candidates define themselves in arguing, Charlotte's are defined before they enter into speech and, in speaking, launch additional description. Into Heger's outline, Charlotte reads an opportunity to demonstrate what she has learned. Her opening allusions to existence and the "young sphere" recall the conftation of religion and astronomy in "The Immensity of God." "Noble savage" clearly refers to Rousseau, and the roster of patriarchs from Genesis that follows, like the later reference to laboring in the fields, reaffirms her knowledge of the Bible. Her classical allusions are less easy to pinpoint. She could have read the Iliad at the Ponden House library, 13 or Heger could have talked about Achilles. She could have read descriptions of the Amazon Thalestris or seen her featured in a painting. In either case, she expurgates some details: Thalestris, hoping for a daughter who would rule the earth, coerced Alexander into mating with her; she hunted with her left side naked to the breast and her

234

The Palace of Death

robe knotted up above the knee. 14 The ice and its architect are Charlotte's invention, the palace an analogue to the Egyptian temple she describes in "Evening Prayer in a Camp." Her reference to the Neva (and deletion of "Dan") could come from a lesson in geography (the boys in Heger's classes, and so perhaps the girls, were taught "geographic nomenclature"). 15 The veil that covers Death's skeletal arm may also have a classroom precedent: in one of her translations, "Un banquet Egyptien," the narrator raises the veil of an immobile guest to find "that the form it hid ... was a skeleton!"16 Heger's classes also supplemented what she learned from Bunyan on the figurative uses of allegory. This dictee appears in two of her notebooks, the first time as a test with corrections: "There is in heaven a power divine, a constant companion of religion and virtue .... Although her eyes are blindfolded, her gaze penetrates the future; sometimes she holds budding flowers in her hand, sometimes a cup filled with an enchanting liqueur; nothing approaches the charm of her voice, or the grace of her smile; the closer one comes to the grave, the more she shows herself, pure and shining, to comforted mortals. Faith and Charity say to her, 'My sister.' Her name is ... Hope.'m In the absence of a date, its connection to "The Palace of Death" can only be provisional. But Intemperance's flowers, intoxicating cup, and sinister sisterhood with Death suggest that Charlotte deliberately echoes Heger's sentimental set piece, subverting it to meet his new demands. 18 Even when these debts to other sources go unrecognized, most readers find her devoir inferior to Emily's, less powerfully argued and developed. But if power is defined by what it gains for its possessor, her devoir may be the more successful. Heger's responses to Emily's text are cosmetic rather than substantive. He strikes out a sentence (though it follows his instructions), awards her a couple of "Goods" for salient details, adjusts two verbs, and underlines her anglicisms. Fourteen years later, he told Gaskell that he rated Emily's genius more highly than Charlotte's. 19 But on this project she commands far less of his attention than her acquiescent sister. Charlotte's text elicits abundant comments-on ideas, order, detail, grammar, word choice. Several take the form of questions and demands, both stimulants to further work and thinking. Why does Death require a

The Palace of Death

235

prime minister? Why does Ambition come first? (Emily makes comparable statements and choices, but Heger says nothing about them.) He is rigorous in refining idiom and nuance, generous when he sees her struggling with ideas that her French is insufficient to convey. "Good thought," he writes next to a convoluted statement about the paradox of Death's existence. Throughout her devoir, Charlotte confuses two nouns derived from teindre, "to color or dye": the masculine form, teint, connotes complexion or coloring; the feminine, teinte, tint or shade. Heger does not simply correct her confusion. Next to her description of the palace carved of ice (glace) he writes tain, a homonym from etain, "tin or tinfoil." When glass, also glace in French, is coated with tinfoil, it becomes a mirroring surface. French poetry is rich in mirror imagery, and Charlotte may again be demonstrating knowledge when she alludes to walls whose icy pallor is reflected in the company's complexions. Heger was her guide to that tradition; together they had analyzed a "Harmonie" by Lamartine in which the word reflet appears. 20 Here, then, teint-teinte-tain can be read as a signifier, not just of wordplay, but of intimate connection between this eager learner and her teacher. Of course, their intimacy was her construct. Heger may have been flattered by her progress and attention, but nothing suggests that he had any aim in commenting beyond her educational development. And yet, if she compared the text that she got back with Emily's, she might well have concluded that he favored her. Emily personifies a Civilization that subjugates Death's cohorts in four lean clauses (77-79 [79--82F]). Charlotte moralizes on the movement into cities, where civilized refinements "soon [find] a habitation" (26-27). Hers are the lines that rate his "Goods." Possibly, Heger was tempering his treatment to the level and ambition of his students. Charlotte craved fluency in French, unlike her sister, and she benefited more from his responses. In any case, their contact was abruptly broken off by the news of Aunt Branwell's final illness. For the Bronte sisters, October was a month of death. Their father's 28-year-old curate, William Weightman, had died on September 6 of cholera. Martha Taylor died as they were doing this assignment; her memorial service was its postscript. Aunt Branwell's death followed on October 29, putting an end to their semester abroad and to Emily's trav-

236

The Palace of Death

els out of Yorkshire. But the comments on this devoir and its predecessors hint that, for Charlotte, a new writing life had opened. She had thirsted for connection with a master and a reader, for attention as a person and an author. Unconscious of the poison in the cup that lured her back, she returned as soon as family duties lightened. Emily appears to have put this experience behind her and returned to the Gondals. However, both her saga and Wuthering Heights disclose more than cursory traces of her "Palace." In the year before her death, she was absorbed in depicting the effects of fanatical belief; civil wars between the Republicans and Royalists tear Gondal's families apart. As for Civilization as a minister of death, one has only to think of Catherine Earnshaw at the Grange and her rationale for turning from Heathcliff.

The Palace of Death

237

"Good-bye," Charlotte Bronte's cartoon from a letter of March 6, 1843. Standing on the continent, she waves across the channel to Ellen Nussey, who is with a suitor. The Bronte Society.

Devoirs of 1843

23

30 March 1843

Ch Bronte

An Essay on Style

The Fall of the Leaves

What impression strikes one on reading the piece entitled •The Fall of 5

the Leaves"? It is not easy to shed light on this question in a single answer, because one does not always feel the same impression. The first time one reads it, the effect is vivid; the second time, and forever after, sorrowful. Why this difference, and how can so touching a lament produce a

10

feeling rather vivid than sorrowful? I do not quite know, but it seems to me that the first time, one feels the joy of a miner who has just discovered a diamond of great price and that the second time, one surrenrenders to the sweet melancholy of someone who hears a plaintive air. Whence comes this double impression? What is the source of this influ-

15

ence whose power is proved by the lively and varied emotions it excites in us? To seek the cause of an effect so remarkable is to engage in useful work, first, because it exerts the mind to reason and, next, because it can lead us to a favorable end. The mechanic, seeing an ingenious device, closely examines all its parts; he tries to delve into the

20

principles that regulated its construction. We too, when we behold a perfect work of the mind, can we not conduct the same examination and, in dissecting the details, attempt to discover the secret of their union?

It is through study that the mechanic learns how to invent, and by employing similar means, can we not achieve a similar end? Yet, since 25

this latter result is not quite certain, let us not flatter ourselves too much that we succeed, for fear of finding ourselves in the position of that German student who believed he was learning to create, in learning to dissect.

240

The Fall of the Leaves

I.e 30 Mars 1843

Ch Bronte

23

Devoir de Style

La Chute des Feuilles

QueUe impression ressent-on a la lecture du morceau intitule •ta chute des feuilles?" Ce n'est pas facile d'eclaircir cette question en une seule

s

reponse, parcequ'on ne ressent pas toujours la meme impression. La premiere fois qu'on le lit on eprouve une impression vive; la seconde fois, et toujours apres, une impression triste. Pourquoi cette difference et comment une plainte si touchante peutelle produire un sentiment plutOt vif que triste? Je ne sais pas trop bien

10

mais il me semble que la premiere fois, on eprouve Iajoie d'un mineur qui vient de trouver un diamant de grand prix et que la seconde fois, on se livre ala douce m~an£b.Qlie de celui qui ecoute un air plaintif. D'ou vient cette double impression? QueUe est la source de cette influence dont la force est prouvee par les emotions vives et variees qu'elle excite

lS

chez nous? Rechercher la cause qui produit un effet si remarquable, c'est faire un travail utile, d'abord, parcequ'il exerce l'esprit au raisonDement et ensuite parcequ'il peut nous conduire a un but avantageux. I.e mecanicien qui voit une oeuvre ingenieuse, en examine bien toutes les parties, il tAche d'approfondir les principes qui en ont regie la con-

20

struction; et nous, lorsque nous voyons un ouvrage parfait de l'esprit, ne pouvons nous pas faire le meme examen et en dissequant les details essayer de decouvrir le secret de leur union? C'est par l'etude que le mecanicien apprend a inventer' et en employant un pareil moyen, ne pouvons nous pas atteindre a un pareil but? Pourtant, puisque ce demier resultat n'est pas bien certain, ne nous flattons pas trop d'y reussir, de peur de nous trouver dans la position de cet etudiant allemand qui croyait apprendre a creer' en apprenant a dissequer. La Chute des Feuilles

241

25

What did Millevoye intend in writing "The Fall of the Leaves"? He intended to express ill: wFiUeft welds what a man experiences who, still

30

in

P.onentsj

symptoms

senses~

s1gns

young,

external

oping in him

of the fatal germ devel-

himself the~ and~ of an impending and

inevitable death. What means did he use to develop the idea that he had conceived? Did he not first set himself to think about the period and might

setting he ought to choose, so that the beginning may be the right prelude why?J

to all that must follow? In choosing Autumn as the period, did he not

35

good isn 't it the autumn wind too that harvests poets and leaves grown yellow.

tell himself, "I choose it because it is the season consecrated to melan(2nd)

1st

choly, when the leaves fall, the flowers wither, the days grow short, and the brief twilights usher in nights long and somber? In choosing a wood for the setting, did he not recollect that it is in the woods that the ravages of Autumn are the most visible? It is there that the earth veils herself in

40

leaves the trees have ~; that the last flowers appear pale and languishing between the ivy and the humid moss carpeting the roots of the west wind sighs, the south winds moan roar 45 howl rattle bellow. CH

ancient trees; that the winds, the somber south winds, make heard fixed

their most mournful

~?

Having thus prepared his canvas and traced

obscure[?]

the fir~ ~ outlines of his sketch, has he not carefully searched out the details, gathered together the images most apt to make his main idea stand out? Has he not carefully weighed each thought, carefully considered each accessory, carefully measured and adjusted each part of the in no way offended

great Whole so that their conjunction offered no

so

W1f1Y itiM

~

against the

the an of writing

m~

of composition, the principal of Unity? Is that indeed

the process Millevoye followed?

Is that the method all great poets

follow? Dear children of Apollo, souls made of.fire!

"Souls made of fire and children of the Sun?• Dear children of Apollo, of.fire, like their father!

Alas! I know not; those great minds alone must answer. But there is one obscure

55

thing that I know well, because the

~

of it depends on reason

rather than genius: it is that for novices in literature, for those who want could

to imitate the great masters, this method is the only one that can guide why?

242

The Fall of the Leaves

Que s'est propose Millevoye en ecrivant la chute des feuilles? 11 s'est propose d'exprimer 1Htf tiespttl'61es eeffies ce qu'eprouve un homme, en

qui, jeune encore,

sympttJmes

sent~

de d~velopper en

lui les ~ et les ~ "' d'une mort

lui le germe fatal

I s1gnes

30

p~esages

ext~rieurs

prochaine et inevitable. De quels moyens s'est-il servi1 pour d~velopper l'idee qu'il avait con~ue? Ne s'est-il pas d'abord mis a penser queUe j'at

epoque et queUe sc~ne il fallait choisir afin que le commencement soit le pourquoi?J

juste pr~lude de tout ce qui doit suivre? En choisissant 1' Automne pour

35

epoque ne s'est il pas dit "je le choisis parceque c'est la saison consacree

tongues et sombres? En choisissant un bois pour srene ne s'est-il pas

bon n'est-ce pas aussi au[?] vent qui moisonne les hommes po~tes et les feuilles jaunies.

rappele que c'est dans les bois que les ravages de 1' Automne sont les plus

40

(No 2)

No 1

a la melancholie, ou les feuilles tombent, les fleurs se fletrissent, les jours se raccourcissent et les crepuscules brefs annoncent des nuits

visibles; c'est la que la terre se voile des feuilles que les arbres ont j~.

que les demi~res fleurs apparaissent pAles et languissantes entre

le lierre et la mousse humide tapissant les racines des vieux arbres, que les vents, les sombres Autans, font entendre leurs plus momes

~?

obscurt?J

arr2t~

Ayant ainsi prepare son canevas et trace les pre~~ contours de son esquisse, n'a-t-il pas soigneusement chercM les details, rassemble les images, propres a faire ressortir son idee principale? N'a-t-il pas bien

le z~phir soupire, les autans se plaignent grondent 45 hurlent rlilent mugissent.

CH

pese chaque pensee, bien considere chaque accessoire, bien mesure et ajuste chaque partie du grand Tout de p~chat

en rien

mani~re

l'itlee lft2rrte

que leur reunion ne pre-

l 'art d '~crire

sent!t nul ~ contre le ~de Ia composition, le principe

so

de l'Unite? Est-ce bien Ia le procede que suivit Millevoye? Est-ce Ia methode que suivent tous les grands pOOtes? Chers enfants d'Apollon, limesfaites de feu!

"Souls made of fire and children of the Sun?" Chers enfants d'Apollon, de feu, comme leur p~re!

Helas! je ne sais pas: c'est aces grands esprits seuls de repondre, mais obscur.

il y a une chose que je sais bien, parce que 1'~ en, dwend plutOt de Ia raison que du genie, c'est que pour les novices en litterature, pour ceux qui veulent imiter les grands maitres, cette methode i'est Ia seule

La Chute des Feuilles

243

55

them to any goal, however little ~ible it may be. Perhaps in following it they will never find anything but lead in their crucibles; but perhaps if too~the

dormant spark of genius ignites during the process, a new light

60

will illumine their minds, the true secret of Alchemy will be revealed, barbarism already noted

and their lead will be~ into gold. very

Nonetheless, though I dare not dogmatize about a subject s9J¥. compared to what ?J

beyond my reach, I may be allowed to speculate a little. There is so much verse and so few poems; one is so often bored by reading extrav65

aganzas that speak only of flowers, scents, birds, and rays of sunshine or else of mad passions or absurd emotions that do not touch the reader's feelings because they never stirred the writer's heart. One grows so weary of all these insi idities, one is so entirely convinced that man to [satisfY the nee

o his soul something other]

requires"something else to satisfy the needs of his soul than the aroma 70

of flowers or dreams of passion, that when one encounters what he needs, sane and solid nourishment, true and vigorous feeling expressed in simple and natural language, it's as if one heard the voice of a friend; one

-

be discovers within himself the echo of each word. One tells oneself that

it is well worth the effort to seek the origin of sounds so grave and so

75

sweet. I believe that all true poetry is but the faithful imprint of something very good]

that happens or has happened lit

u~

in the poet's soul. To compose a

quite right

great poem, an epic or a tragedy, undoubtedly, one needs a plan, erudition and reasoning. But to write a fugitive little poem like "The Fall of 80

the Leaves," does one need anything other than genius cooperating with a feeling, an affection, or a passion of some kind? If, for example, the that rules the spirit

feeling holdin swa for the moment over the s irit is sorrow, could it not be that genius whets the sorrow and that sorrow purifies the genius? unclear

Together, are they not like a cut diamond for which language is but the 85

wax in which they stamp their imprint? I believe that genius, thus very good

awakened, has no need to seek the details, that it scarcely pauses to

244

The Fall of the Leaves

puisse

qui ~ut les .conduire a un but tant soit peu ~ peutetre qta,en 1a pourqu01?

suivant ne trouveront-ils jamais que du plomb dans leurs creusets; peutsi

ttre aus~etincelle dormante du genie s'allume pendant !'operation,

60

une nouvelle lumiere eclairera leurs esprits, le vrai secret de 1' Alchimie barbarisme d~ja signal~.

se revelera et leur plomb se ~en or.

fort-]

Cependant, quoique je n'ose pas dogmatiser sur un sujet t~t Q

au-dela de ma portee, on me permettra d'y

~

quelle comparaison

A

un peu. 11 y a tant

de vers et si peu de poemes, on s'ennuie si souvent de 1a lecture

65

d'extravagances qui ne parlent que de fleurs de parfums, d'oiseaux, de rayons de soleil, ou bien de passions insensees ou de sentiments outres qui ne touchent pas la sensibilite du lecteur parcequ'ils n'ontjamais emu le coeur de l'ecrivain; on est si fatigue de toutes ces ~.on est pour

si bien persuade que 1'homme demande... l autre chose 1 pour satisfaire aux I

besoins de son Arne que l'arome des fleurs ou les rtves de la folie, ~on

70

q~

rencontre ce qu'illui faut une nourriture saine et solide, un

sentiment vrai et vigoureux exprime dans un langage simple et naturel, c'est comme si on enden~ une voix d'ami,

on

~ trouve en

soi l'~ho de

chaque mot; on se dit qu'il vaut bien la peine de rechercher l'origine de

75

sons si graves et si doux

rres bon] que chose qui se passe ou qui s'est passe tit it&ta~ dans l'Ame du poete; tres jusre Je crois que toute poesie reelle n'est que l'empreinte fidele de quel-

pour composer un grand poeme, une epopee ou une tragedie, sans doute, i1 faut un plan, de }'erudition et du raisonnement, mais, pour ecrire un

80

petit poeme fugitif tel que •La chute des feuilles", faut-il autre chose que le genie, cooperant avec un sentiment, une affection ou une passion quelqui domine 1'/Jme

conque? Si, par exemple, le sentiment ~.est

~

le chagrin, n'est-ce pas que le genie aiguise le peu clair

chagrin et que le chagrin purifie le genie? ensemble, ne sont-ils comme un diamant grave pour qui le langage n'est que la eire oil ils estampent leur empreinte? Je crois que le genie, ainsi eveille, n'a pas besoin de La Chute des Feuilles

245

85

tres bon

reflect, that it does not think about unity. I believe that the details come quite naturally without the poet's seeking them, that inspiration takes the

excellent

90

place of reflection. And as for unity, I believe there is no unity more perfect than that which arises from a heart filled with a single idea. It would be as impossible for the torrent, swollen with rain, driven by the tempest, to tum from its impetuous course, as for a man stirred by passion, shattered by grief, willingly to abandon his despair or his joy and speak of things alien to them. The nature of genius resembles that

95

of instinct; its operation is both simple and marvelous. The man of a possible procedure, but it will be with this product as very weak [?]

genius produces,

wit~

work and as if in a single effort, results which

with all natural products. It is ingot gold - others will shape that gold;

ff.!:Hite

the man without genius - however wise, however persevering he may be >lille gf'tJM!f'

Virgil-Aeneas - Plautus-Moliere - Daubenton-Buffon - etc.

- cannot attain. The realm of genius is not limited to intelligence; it is 100

in the heart above all that this spiritual king has established his throne; and it is in whetting sensitivity, in giving great intensity to the passions, a keen impetus to the affections, that he announces his presence and reveals his power. If Millevoye had been a cold, phlegmatic, and unfeelwhat matter that

ing man, no matter if he had had the instruction of a hundred academies, lOS

the wisdom of a thousand philosophers; he would never have composed •The Fall of the Leaves. • The impression of grief, feeble in his thought, would have been feebler still in his written words. But it is time that I on the subject I want to discuss.

stopped, and I see that I have said nothing yd. I have only broached the At the very outset of my theme I discovered in myself an idea,

first question of my theme. I have transgressed despite myself. At the a conviction that would out - my conscience demanded it - and conscience must

110

start I had indeed the intention of following my plan without straying be obeyed. I return now to my subject.

from it. ~

observation

Work does not make the poet; man does not make his genius, he receives it from heaven -that is iRetHtte incontestable. 115

Mechanics does not create.fJl!:g,; INf it regulates its use, it multiplies

246

The Fall of the Leaves

chercher des details, qu'il ne s'arrete guere pour reflechir, qu'il ne pense pas a l'unite: je crois que les details viennent tout naturellement.sans que le poete les cherche, que }'inspiration tient la place de la reflexion et quant a la unite, je pense qu'il n'y a pas d'unite plus parfaite que celle

90

excellent

qui resulte d'un coeur rempli d'une seule idee: il serait aussi impossible pour le torrent, gonfle de pluies, lance par la tem¢te, de detoumer son cours impetueux, que pour l'homme, emu de passion, brise de douleur, de quitter volontairement son chagrin ou sa joie et de parler des choses

9S

qui leur sont etrangeres. La nature de genie tient a celle d'instinct; son

0)

~

operation est ala fois simple et merveilleuse; l'homme de genie produit, (1) opun. possible, ~

1Mls

il en sera de ce

travail et comme par un seul effort, des resultats auxquels l 'hom me

produit liJ conune de tousles produits naturels.- C'est l'or en ba"es-d'autres

tr~s

faible ['?]

sans genie quelque savant, quelque perseverant qu'il soit ne pourrait le fafonneront cet or, e 'tfl fi

'li~rtt!f'6fl

Virgile-Ennius -

Plaute-Moli~re

- -&tt

jamais atteindre. L'empire de genie ne se borne pas a l'intelligence; c'est

100

Daubenton-Buffon - &a

surtout dans le coeur que ce roi spirituel a etabli son tr6ne et c'est en aiguisant la sensibilite, en donnant une grande vivacite aux passions, un vif elan aux affections qu'il annonce sa presence et demontre sa force. Si Millevoye avait ete un homme froid, flegmatique, insensible, peu importe qu 'il eDt

n'importe, s'il avait possede l'instruction de cent academies, la sagesse

lOS

de mille philosophes, il n'auraitjamais compose "La chute des feuilles•. sa L'impression de douleur, faible dans ses pensee, aurait ete plus faible encore dans ses paroles ecrites. Mais il est temps que je m'arrete et je du sujet que je veux traiter.

m'aper~ois que je n'ai encore rien dit 1', je n'ai entame que la premiere tout au debut de 1M th~se, j 'ai trouve en moi une idee, une conviction qui voulait

question de rna these; j'ai ¢che malgre moi, au commencementj'avais

110

se faire jour-. c 'etait une exigence de 1M conscience-. et Ia conscience veut 2tre

bien l'intention de suivre le cadre sans m'en ecarter. obeie- Je reviens TMintenant

amon sujet. -.

~

observation

le l11md1 nefait pas le poete; l'homme nefait pas son genie, ille refoit du ciel-. c 'est iltetHtle incontestable.La mecanique ne cree pas Ia force; lff6if elle en regie l'emploi elle en

La Chute des Feuilles

247

115

its effect a hundredfold. Man knows not what genius is; it is a gift from Heaven, it is something divine, says he. It is the same withfQI.«. All[?] But imagine two men of equal strength, one without a lever, the

120

other with a lever. -the .first will lift I ,000 pounds, the second, in making the liJ!!J!:. effort, will uproot a plane tree. Is the /eyer nothing? no N6fw:e Without the~

125

1e singer

either -doubtless; but no singer· without

QYJ/1, without study, without imitation. WHile the eHjt ef si11gi~ 118 ge11

Nature makes the painter. What would he be however without the study of pespective, the art of coloration, etc. How much would his paintings be worth, how long would they last? 130

Without study, no {l]1. Without art no effect on humanity, because art epitomizes that which all the centuries bequeath to us, all that man has found beautiful, that which has had an effect on man, all that has he has found worth saving from oblivion -

wine-grapepress 135

uncultivated landvigorous shootsbitter fruit

Genius, without study twJ without art, without the knowledge of what has been done, isfQI.ce without the lever; it is Demosthenes, a sublime orator, who stammers and gets himself hissed; it is the soul that sings within and which, to express its inner songs, has only a rude and uncultivated voice; it is the sublime musician, finally, who has only an untuned piano to make the world

food for the table, etc. "For culinary 140 art one does not improvise a dinner but without a chef

hear the dulcet melodies that he hears reverberating inwardly. Certainly 11te t'fit[ ~ tl8efl118t the lapidary does not make the diamond, but without the lapidary the most beautiful diamond is a pebble.

l!J!n. or l1QL then, study form. If a poet you will be more powerful & your works will live. If not, you will not create poetry, but you will savor its merit and its charms.

248

The Fall of the Leaves

centuple ld 'effet.l'homme ne sait pas ce que c'est que le gtzlk, c'est un don du Ciel. c'est que/que chose de dil1lJ., dit-il.-11 en est de meme de Iaforce: Mellef: [?] Mais supposez deux hommes de memejorce l'un sans levier,

/'autre avec un levier

120

- le Jer soulevera 1,000. livres, le second en jaisant !1Jl!!lt. effort, un platane -

d~racinera

Le levjer n'est-il rien?b6

Rtiffll'e

point de Sans Ia mil. tHt chanteur - Sans doute - mais point de

aussi chanteur· sans Ql1, sans ~tude, sans imitation -.

125

Se I 'aFt tle eltaRteF pei11t de ge11 La nature fait le peintre - que serait-il cependant sans l '~tude de Ia

perspective, de /'art des couleurs -. &a - Combien vaudraient combien dureraient ses tableaux -. Sans ~tude, point d 'Ql1.- Sans art point d 'effet sur les hommes, puisque /'art est le

r~sum~

130

de ce que tous les siecles nous leguent de tout ce que

l'homme a trouv~ ~.de ce qui a fait effet sur l'homme, de tout ce qu'il a trou~

digne d'etre

sauv~

de l'oubli-

le g~nie, sans /'~tude ef sans /'art, sans Ia connaissance de ce qui a ~t~ fait, c'est laj(l!.ce, sans le levier, c'est D~mosthene sublime orateur, qui Mgaie

vin-raisinpressoir 135

te"e inculteet sejait sijjler -. c'est l'IJme qui chante en-dedans, et qui n'apr. exprimer jets vigourewcfruits apres ses chants int~rieurs, qu'une voix rude et inculte; c'est le sublime musicien mets, &a enjin qui n'a qu'un piano discord pr jaire entendre au monde, les suaves "Pour l 'art culinaire on n 'improvise pas m~lodies qu 'il entend r~sonner en lui -. un dtner Certes 140 b6 ttdl£'1] 11e Ia lapidaire ne fait pas le diamant, mais sans /e /apidaire mais sans cuisinier /e plus beau diamant est un cail/ou. fJllJ.e.

ou liQl1 ~tudiez done Ia forme - Poi!te vous serez plus puissant &

vos oeuvres vivront- Dans le cas contraire, vous ne Jerez pas de poi!sie, mais vous en savourerez le m~rite et les channes -.

La Chute des Feuilles

249

[Sixth entry in Charlotte Bronte's notebook of dictations, with her notes]

The Fall of the Leaves With the leafy remains of our forest, Autumn had littered the ground. The copse was bare of mystery, The nightingale's voice without sound.

5

Sad and deathbound at his dawning, A sickly youth, pacing slow, appears; The spirit in these moments of sadness inclines toward 10 the happy years of childhood

One more time he wanders through The woodland dear to his earliest years: •Farewell, beloved forest . . . . I succumb; Your mourning speaks to my ill-fated breath, And in each leaf that falls I see a harbinger of death.

an omen mysterious 15 vague

Oracle of fate at Epidaurus, You told me, 'Once more, as in the past, The leaves of the forest will yellow before your eyes, But for you, this time will be the last.

picturesque marvelous[?] calm of autumn

Eternal cypress wreathes you: Paler than pale autumn, Toward the tomb you even now incline.

20

Your withering youth passes Before the meadow grasses, Before the laden branches of the vine. ' profoundly moving

25

And I die . . . . The somber west winds touched me, Of their frigid breath I feel the sting. And I have seen, like a vain deluding shadow, The evanescence of my lovely spring. Fall, fall to earth, leaf ephemeral!

250

The Fall of the Leaves

[Charlotte Bronte]

[Dictee]

La chute des Feuilles De la depouille de nos bois, L'automne avait jonche la terre: Le bocage etait sans mystere,

s

Le rossignol etait sans voix. Triste et mourant, l son aurore, Un jeune malade, l pas Ients, Parcourait une fois encore Le bois cher a ses premiers ans: •Bois, que j'aime! adieu .... je succombe;

L'esprit dans ses moments de tristesse s'incline vers les beaux ann6es de Ia 10 jeunesse

•votre deuil me predit mon sort, •Et dans chaque feuille qui tombe Je vois un presage de mort. • Fatal oracle d'Epidaure, Tu m'as dit •Les feuilles des bois

pr6sage myst6rieux vague IS

•A. tes yeux jauniront encore •Mais, c'est pour Ia demiere fois. •vetemel cypres t'environne: pitoresque merveilleux[?] calme de l'automne 20

•Pius pAle que Ia pale automne, •Tu t'inclines vers le tombeau.

•Ta jeunesse sera fletrie •Avant l'herbe de la prairie, •Avant les pampres du coteau• Et je meurs . . . . De leur froide haleine M'ont touche les sombres Autans: Et j'ai vu comme un ombre vaine S'evanouir mon beau printemps. Tombe, tombe, feuille ephemere!

La Chute des Feuilles

251

profondement touchant

25

Veil from the eye this path of sorrow. Hide from the despair of my mother

30

The place where I shall be tomorrow. he no longer has faith in love for him it is like a dream

But if along the lonely path, My grief-tom beloved Comes weeping when daylight has fled, Awaken with your soft noise, for an instant's consolation,

3S

My shade from the realms of the dead!• He speaks, he wanders off .... without returning! The last leaf falling in the gloom Signaled the youth's last day, departing. Beneath the oak they hollowed out his tomb ....

40 bitter

But his beloved did not come to see him, Never visited the isolated stone. With the sound of his steps alone The shepherd of the valley

4S

Disturbed the silence of that mausoleum. [Charles-Hubert] Millevoye

252

The Fall of the Leaves

Voile aux yeux ce triste chemin Cache au desespoir de rna mere

30

La place ou je serai demain.

Mais, vers la solitaire allee,

il ne se fie plus ~ l'amour- c'est pour lui comme un songe

Si mon amante echevelee Venait pleurer quand le jour fuit, Eveille par ton leger bruit

35

Mon ombre un instant consolee! 11 dit, s'eloigne .... et sans retour! La demiere feuille qui tombe

A signale son demier jour. Sous le chene on creusa sa tombe .... Mais son amante ne vint pas

40

amere

Visiter la pierre isolee Et le patre de la vallee Troubla seul du bruit de ses pas Le silence du mausolee

45

Millevoye

La Chute des Feuilles

253

Comments

This is the first surviving devoir from Charlotte's second period in Brussels. She wrote it two months after her return and about nine months aftershe had transcribed "The Fall of the Leaves" in hernotebook. 1 In the interval, she had made the transition from a pupil attending Heger's classes to a teacher giving classes of her own. She continued to study German and French literature and to submit compositions to Heger, but perhaps less frequently and with greater latitude now that her status had changed. She had also undertaken to improve Heger's English, and although the lessons may have stopped by mid-March, she had yet to feel isolated from him. He was still keeping her supplied with books and conversing with her "sometimes, "2 though less often. In the cold, raw months that followed her return, she completed a number of translations: passages from Scott and Byron into French, poems by Belmontet and Barbier into English, and ballads by Schiller into French. 3 One of those translations, from The Lady ofthe Lake, may have turned her interest back to this lyric. It is a "Coronach," or funeral song, for a Highland hero who dies young. Scott's anapestic lines seem far removed from Millevoye's, but Charlotte's French rendition brings them closer:

254

The Autumn winds rushing Waft the leaves that are serest, But our flower was in flushing When blighting was nearest. 4 Les vents sombres d' Automne Ne detachent que des feuilles jaunes et seches [sic] Mais notre fleur venait de s'epanouir Quand le souffle de la Mort l'abattit.5 Because she did not date her translation, the connections can only be guessed. Did Scott's verses reevoke the elegy she first transcribed in 1842, or did some remark of Heger's draw her back to it? Does her devoir respond to an assignment he gave her, or did she independently undertake an exercise like those he had required the year before? Certainly, at this time she was thinking about poetry and about her future as a writer. She had come back from Haworth with samples of her work, poems and stories that she probably intended to show him and a copybook of poems she was revising. Translation also made her pay attention to workmanship, compelling her to analyze-"dissect," to use her metaphor-the passages that others had created. Whatever her incentive for returning to "The Fall of the Leaves," she assumes that she is writing about a little masterpiece, an estimate still common in the early 1840s, some thirty years after its first publication as the winner of a noted competition, the Jeux Floraux. (Sainte-Beuve, writing in 1837, calls it the "pearl" of Millevoye's elegies, "the piece that everyone remembers.... ")6 If informed French taste had shifted to Lamartine and Hugo, and Millevoye had slipped to the rank of minor poet, Heger was neither out of date nor unconventional in asking his students to study it. Charlotte begins by trying to describe the "impression" that the reader experiences. As she tackles this subject, her prose is stiff and formal; she tries out the language of a scholar. It becomes less constrained when she describes the woods in autumn, but her French does not flow until she reaches the questions that she wants, again, to open up with Heger: What is the source of the power that engenders art? What is the nature of genius?'

The Fall of the Leaves

255

She had come to Brussels an entrenched Romantic. Grounded in Wordsworth, she preferred to think as he did that "poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings," that its object is to carry truth "alive into the heart by passion," and that its words should be natural and simple, "language really used by men. "8 But Heger had impressed her with the value of analysis and the necessity of discipline. "Effect," not "impression," is the term he emphasized in previous comments about the craft of writing: Remorselessly sacrifice everything that does not contribute to

clarity, verisimilitude, and effect. Accentuate everything that sets the main idea in relief.... It's sufficient that the rest be in its proper place, but in half-tone. That is what gives to style, as to painting, unity, perspective, and effect. 9 Charlotte is probably recalling these strictures when she asks how Millevoye composed his elegy; portions of lines 44-50 (45-51F) paraphrase these comments on "The Nest." But the oppositions that she sets up there and later-between verse and poetry, novice work and masterwork, grand- and small-scale literature, plan and inspiration-suggest that she still finds these tenets uncongenial, however much she wants to please her teacher. Heger's "observation" here acknowledges dichotomies, but only to challenge their exclusiveness: whatever the artist receives from God or nature, the gift must be developed and disciplined. He never implies, as she so often does, that passion is at odds with preparation. In his interlinear comments he also prompts her to examine the claims she makes dogmatically. "Why?" he asks, when she says that methodical study alone can lead beginners to their goal. When she fails to follow the principle of unity, abandoning the topic she had chosen to investigate, he gives her an excuse for digressing. An exigence of conscience has led her off the subject, and in this case the internal force supersedes the rules. In these ways and others, he addresses her concerns and prods her into thinking more flexibly. At no point does he note that her defense of "The Fall of the Leaves" is based on a misconception. Millevoye's is not a "fugitive little poem" in

256

The Fall of the Leaves

which pure genius cooperates with feeling. The poet may have launched it in a fit of inspiration, but he put his early draft through a series of revisions, placed the poem first in a collection of his elegies, and headed the collection with an essay "On the Elegy" that traces the tradition of the genre. 10 Legend ascribes to the poem the kind of origin that Charlotte would have found congenial: "On the day of Saint-Severin's fair, at Crecy [October 23, 1809], Millevoye had been invited to dine with a retired magistrate. The poet set out that morning for a stroll through the forest. The other guests awaited him vainly. He did not return until that night. On the morrow, peasants reported having seen him alone and making gestures. Some days later, Millevoye read the Chute des feuilles. " 11 Heger may not have been aware of the legend (this version was transcribed in 1897), but he would have known and recounted to his students other details that make Millevoye appealing: the poet exhibited unusual precocity; as a young adult, he developed a weak chest; he died at thirty-three in 1816--the year in which Charlotte was born. Yet if his life appears romantic, his career firmly roots him within a neoclassical tradition. Millevoye was a student of the classics, an essayist, a satirist, a translator of Homer, and a poet proud of imitating others. He read the new Romantics and shared some of their beliefs, as his theory on the elegy suggests. But he was not awash in sorrow, nor was his heart a quarry for the little gems emotion could strike out of it. The elegy, he believed, came naturally to man and should remain temperate and simple: "Even in singing of happiness, it can keep its characteristic tinge of sadness. This mixture of opposing impressions adds to its effect. Above all it delights in the remembrance of what is no more .... For it, no object is inanimate; ruins are living, solitude is peopled, and the tomb ceases to be mute. " 12 Charlotte may have known nothing about Millevoye's theory, though her comment in the devoir on instruction and academies hints that she knew something of his background. Still, she immediately senses that "The Fall of the Leaves" gives rise to opposing impressions. Resisting their mixture, she divides them metonymically: one response replaces the other. She also resists or misses any signal that the elegy's effects are studied. "Oracle of fate at Epidaurus," for example, is both portent and clas-

The Fall ofthe Leaves

257

sical allusion: Epidaurus, a city in ancient Greece with a temple sacred to Aesculapius, was visited by invalids who sought to learn their fate. Millevoye echoes the allusion with "mausoleum," the final word of the poem: Mausolos, governor of a kingdom near Epidaurus, built himself a monumental tomb. 13 That the image of a mausoleum might clash with the image of a grave beneath an oak in the forest seems not to have occurred to the poet and his readers, and certainly not to Charlotte Bronte. But then, she does not claim to be a learned academic, and Heger does not attempt to make her one. They speak of Art, the sources and results of creativity. They explicate through metaphor, not theory. For both of them, poets are " [s]ouls made of fire," children of the god of light and prophecy. For both, "true poetry" emerges from the heart and finds an outlet in figurative language. Charlotte's own imagery earns frequent responses-expressions of approval, reservations, questions, and corrections that embellish or fine-tune. In his "observation," Heger picks up on her metaphors, so that they become a form of currency between the two, a medium of connection and exchange. For example, the diamond, cited first in line 12, becomes a figure for the processes of genius (85-86), and then, in Heger's end comment, a reminder that the artist needs technique to bring the gem out of the rock (140-41 ). It seems, finally, beside the point to wonder at her judgment in taking "The Fall of the Leaves" and Millevoye as exemplars of genius. As a writer, she required "sane and solid nourishment"; she found it not so much in the voice of the poet as in Heger's voice, responding to hers.

258

The Fall ofthe Leaves

Charlotte Bronte's sketch " Abercrombie." The Bronte Society.

24

[no date]

[Charlotte Bronte]

[Letter] My dear Jane A long time ago I stopped writing to you because you never answered my letters, and finally I got tired of keeping up a correspondence of which I alone bore all the costs. I confess that I have been h&ve [feuad]

5

excessively angry at you. I find you so weak as to be incapable of doing what you know to be your duty. If now I take the first steps to renew and last our intimacy, it's because I want to make one lone attempt to emancipate indolence you from that shameful servitude in which yettr leiftess confines you. Also I have no intention whatsoever of flattering you in this letter- rich,

10

young, and beautiful as you are. You encounter enough flatterers in the salons where you slackly spend your life. As for me, I reserve the privilege of annoying you, of irritating you, of casting painful doubts in your mind about the usefulness of the life you lead

What do you do with your time? Listen while I trace the sketch of 15

one of your days. It matters little whether you rise early or late, since if you rise at an early hour, it is never with the aim of doing something useful. In getting dressed you remain a long time before your mirror it because idleness having made yett your mind sterile~ has left you no pleasure beyond the contemplation of the graces of your body. You

20

descend and you breakfast. In breakfasting, you pay too much attention to your appetite - your taste -because, no longer familiar with intellectual pleasures, you take refuge in bedt material pleasures. After breakyet fast, your conscience, half smothered but~ not "' altogether dead, utters its feeble cry. •Jane, • it says, •nevote an hour to some reading

25

or some serious occupation.• You try; you cannot persevere, you do not have the strength. Light thoughts come fluttering around your mind;

260

Letter (My Dear Jane)

24

[Charlotte Bronte]

[Lettre] Ma chere Jane 11 y a longtemps que j'ai cesse de vous ecrire parceque vous ne repondiez jamais l mes lettres eta la fin je me suis lassee d'entretenir une correspondance dont moi seule faisais tousles frais. J'avoue que j'ai et

ete excessivement fachee contre vous- je vous trouvee si faible d'etre

5

incapable de faire ce que vous savez etre de votre devoir - si maintenant je fais les premiers pas pour renouveler notre intimite c'est parceque je et dernier

veux tenter un seul effort pour vous emanciper de cette honteuse servil'indolence

tude ou vetre paFesse vous retient- Aussi je n'ai nullement !'intention de vous flatter dans cette lettre riche jeune et belle comme vous l'etes-

10

vous trouvez assez de flatteurs dans les salons ou vous passez mollement votre vie - quant a moi je me reserve le privilege de vous irriter de vous troubler de jeter dans votre esprit des doutes penibles sur l'utilite de la vie que vous menez Que faites vous de votre temps? - ecoutez je vais tracer le tableau

15

d 'une de vos journees - Peu importe si vous vous levez t6t ou tard puis-

que si vous vous levez de bonne heure ce n'est jamais dans le but de faire quelquechose d'utile- en vous habillant vous restez long-temps devant votre miroir parceque la paresse

¥eti!l

ayant rendu votre esprit

elle

sterile~

ne vous a laisse d'autre plaisir que la contemplation des graces

20

de votre corps - vous descendez et vous dejeunez - en dejeunant vous consultez trop votre appetit - votre gout - car ne connaissant plus les jouissances intellectuelles vous vous refugiez dans les jouissances eerp materielles Apres le dejeuner- votre conscience ademie-etouffee mais encore

afait morte, poUSSe SOn faible Cri, •Jane• •consacrez une heure aquelque lecture ou quelque occupation

f'H eepeftEiftftt pas

dit-elle -

A

tOUt-

serieuse- vous essayez- vous ne pouvez pas perseverer, vous n'avez

Lettre (Ma chere Jane)

261

25

you let them enter; and the noble resolution to do well escapes. H has dees aet fiad it was aet shewa hespital:ity ia that sleek seal llfl:d You waste aetf?t the morning skimming through novels. In the afternoon you go for a walk, you make some calls. In the evening you dress and go out

30

into society. That is how you live, you who must one day marry, and who a little later must die -

I paused for an instant because several eeeause se-veF&l thoughts came pel'S6ft8l

into my mind, and I had to push them away, they were too YeFf complex 35

[*]As you well know I have the bad habit of seeing everything

to disentangle in a letter. Now they have all departed; I know not what abyss has engulfed them; and there remains with me but a single idea, less severe and more tender: I see e-verytlliag [*] through the colored glass field glass of simile. And this idea appears before me like a bird, who comes from a distant land of charity and mildness and who, resting on

40

the branch of a vine that I imagine being close to me but is not, folds and its brilliant wings, looks at me with an eye that seems to say, "Have pity on your friend Jane. She is better and sweeter than you. Do you too not love pleasure? Are you too never idle?" slack Ah yes - But my idleness is not the llea¥y indolence of Jane, it is a

45

the bird changes into a little monkey who asks me in a mocking tone as he ltep teeters on a vinestock 50

heavy depression that drops upon my heart and crushes its faculties But I want none of that tender tone. Fly away, bird I waat aet I have sworn to speak as a stoic -as a stern mentor- mocking -without pity. •Are you not fond of pleasures" spys the eifEl. heftftift& Hft !fte

Yiaesteek . The little demon pushes me to the limit: "I grow impatient "Yes I love them, naughty sprite, I love them all - novels, walks visits - parties - aad with passiea -

Ilft'+'e yea aer;er read ae·;els? says he ia 11ft iasiauatiag maaaer as for novels "I have read some - or rather I have devoured them by the thousands

262

Letter (My Dear Jane)

pas Ia force - des pensees legeres viennent voltiger autour de votre esprit - vous les laissez entrer- et Ia noble resolution de bien faire s'echappe 'a - il ae tfetwe ea ae lui a JlllS deaae l' he5J1it&lite dllfts eeue Alfte Melle et

30

vous dissipez JiltS Ia matinee en parcourant des romans - l'apres-midi vous vous promenez - vous faites des visites - le soir vous vous habillez et vous allez en societe - voila comment vous vivez vous qui devez un jour vous marier - et qui un peu plus tard devez mourir Je me suis arrete un instant car plusieurs ear Jllusieurs pensees me

35

pt'8l)fe

sont venues dans l'esprit- et j'ai du les repousser elles etaient trop tres compliquees pour demeler dans une lettre a present elle sont toutes ne parties je ne sais quele abfme les a englouties- et il me reste qu'une le seule idee, moins severe et plus tendre - je 't'6tS teut [*] a travers Ia vere lttftette colore de Ia comparaison - et cette idee me apparait comme un

[*]Comme vous savez bien j'ai Ia mauvaise habitude de tout voir 40

oiseau- qui vient de loin d'une terre de charite et de douceur et qui se reposant sur une branche de vigne que je me figure d'etre pres de moi et mais qui ne l'est pas- ploie ses ailes brillantes- me regarde d'un oeil qui semble dire •ayez pitie de votre amie Jane. elle est meilleure et plus douce que vous- est-ce que vous aussi vous n'aimez pas les plaisirs -?" Vous aussi

n'~tes

45

vous jamais paresseuse-?"

molle Ah oui- mais mai paresse ce n'est pas la letlftl indolence de Jane I!

c'est un lourd decouragement qui me tombe sur le coeur et en ecrase les facultes Mais je ne veux pas de ce ton tendre- envole-toi oiseau je Be 't'ell:~t JiltS j'ai fait serment de parler en stoique- en mentor severe- moqueur

- impitoyable -. "N'aimez vous pas les plaisirs" dit l'eiseat~ ea mtant sur 11 ee.p de vigae- Le petit demon me pousse au bout "je m'impatiente "Oui je les aime mechante fee - je les aime tous - romans promevisites nades - soirees - et ll't'ee Jl&ssiea N'll't'e!l ·.·eus jalftais lu des Felftllfts? dit il d'ua tea iasiftllllftt quant aux romans "J'en ai Ius- ou plutl>t j'en ai devon~s par miliers

Lettre (Ma chere Jane)

263

l'oiseau se so transforme en petit singe qui me demande d'un ton moqueur en 881ft se balan~ant sur un cep de vigne

ss

The ma11:key l&~:~ghs; pttsheEI te the limit I wattle like te slap him ffi6ftltey

55

1t11:6 ·A~~:e I hltftg my hftftd eglti:Rst a hftrtl tlesk monkey 1t11:6 'liRe

tliSftl'l'tlllf

I wish she

I love walks too and I wish that Jane loved them as I do ltft6 after

knew how delicious it is

or at work 8- 3 - 4 hours passed in study- to go out of one's room- to quit one's books - eRe & then to leave behind the cities with their filthy streets and

60

sad boulevards and go climbing in the dusky mountains and breathe the virgin air that blows about their summits &II: air that seems to fill your veins with life and your soul with joy a[?]

I remember you made the remark to me that those walks in the

country lacked interest, that you find it more amusing to make calls; I too make calls; one finds many acquaintances among the mountains. To 65

begin with there is a certain gray rock, a giant\who dwells alone at the bottom of a ravine, next a Orrtain cataract whose\voice awakens an eternal echo in a vast desert of\eath by dint of breathing the

whose inhabitant is compatriot of the eagle. 70 and where one reads that royal affinity in which his gee eye vivid and piercing wholly like that of the sovereign of the skies 75

80

I am not speaking of the flat country where maR livi11:g ahvays i11: the

pestilent air one mMshes of the marshes degenerates into a kind of frog"- cold, heavy, phlegmatic. I speak of the mountainous country- read highlands- where of man is compatriot with the eagle - and where a g1t2e af fire 1'6[?) his eye.. piercing and bold attests to his affinity with the king of the skiesHaving cast an eye over these last lines I find them both stupid and false, and I truly beg your pardon~ for having written them. A fact: even though I consider the mountains as veritable steps in Jacob's ladder, leads which us from the earth to heaven, I know that they are not always angels whom one sees going up and down. And although I regard the places sad plains as desert~ .. v;ithattt iRtefest aRe withettt jey, habitations of owls from time to time and, if you like, of croaking frogs, I know that one finds there else a a his same mcin (r;eFy few) httt same) worthy through their talents and through his independence of ~ "t'iftttes of being ehiefs af the elMs native to Glefl Me"'eR aF of the peak having been born on the sttmmits of Ben Nevis or Shihallia11:. I have made honorable amends and I continue

264

Letter (My Dear Jane)

Le siftge fit,

pet~sse

fttl bettt. je ·ret~tif&is lt1i tieftftef' tlfte tape siftge et '>rigfte

je hettFte la mllift eefttfe tift tit1F ptlpitFe singe et ·;igfte

se seftt 6rtllftetlis

J'aime aussi les promenades et je voudrais que Jane les aimees[?] ou au travail com me moi et apres 8 - 3 - 4 heures passees aI' etude - de sortir de sa

Je voudrais

60

qu' elle savait combien il est d6licieux

chambre - de quitter ses livres - ett & puis de laisser loin les villes avec leurs sales rues et tristes boulevards et d'aller gravir des montagnes l'air vierge qui souffle autour de leurs sommets brunes et respirer tHt air qui semble remplir vos veines de vie et votre Arne dejoie-

65 un[?]

Je me rappelle que vous m'avez fait !'observation que ces promenades

a Ia campagne manquaient inter~t que vous trouvez plus amusant

de faire des visites moi aussi je fais des visites on trouve beaucoup de connaissances parmi les montagnes- d'abord il y a certain roc grisgeant \ui demeure seul au fond d'une ravine- puis cer~ne cataracte dont Ia\voix eveille un etemel echo dans un vaste desert\te bruyere Aforce de respirer Je ne parle pas de Ia compagne platte ou l'hemme 'f't'rllftt tet1jet1FS l'air empest~S !'on tillfts ties mllfftis des marais degenere en un espece de grenouille - froid, lourd, flegmatique- je parle de Ia campagne montagneuse -lisez hautsde pays- ou l'homme est compatriote ll\'ee l'aigle- et ou tift Fegllfti tie fet1

t'ef» son oeil..

et hardi atteste son affinite avec le roi des airs es Ayantjete l'oeil sur ses demiers lignesje I'li trouve aIa fois stupides per~ant

et fausses et je vous demande bien pardonk de les avoir ecrites - un fait, v6ritables degr6s bien que je considere les montagnes comme 't'efitftbles tiegFes de 1'echelle conduit de Jacob - qui nous de Ia terre au ciel - je sais que ce ne sont pas toujours des anges qu'on y voit monter et descendre- et bien que je lieux regarde les plaines comme des "' deserts SllftS iftt~t et SllftS jeie habitatristes tions de hiboux et si vous voulez de grenouilles croassantes je sais qu'on de temps en temps un y trouve fttlssi fltlelques hommek (bieB petl) mitis fltlelfltles tlftS) dignek par ses son independance de leur talents et par 1ettf Yefhtt d'~tre ehefs ties elafts natifs de Glett le pic Mef't'eB et1 d'avoir ete ne sur les semmets de Ben Nevis et1 Shihllllieft - J'ai fait l'amende honorable et je continue

Lettre (Ma chere Jane)

265

70

dont !'habitant est compatriote de l'aigle. et ob on lit cette affinit6 royale dont Hit Fegllftl& son oeil 75 vift et per~ant tout semblable II, celui du souverain des airs

80

85

Comments

It is a curious metaphysical fact that always in the evening when I am in the great Dormitory alone ... I always recur as fanatically as ever to the old ideas the old faces & the old scenes in the world below -Charlotte to Branwell Bronte, May 1, 1843 1

"My dear Jane" is not literally a devoir. It is a manuscript that Charlotte abandoned-undated, untitled, and unsigned. She did not begin by ruling pages from her notebook or transcribe it in her usual devoir hand. She wrote on unlined paper, adding only a left margin and apparently composing as she went. 2 Though the fifth page breaks off with the words "I continue," no sequel has ever turned up. Still, she cared enough about the fragment to preserve it with her devoirs and copybooks from Brussels. The content disappoints any hope that she was saving a precursor of Jane Eyre. Neither the recipient nor the writer of this letter anticipates Charlotte's famous governess. But they do have predecessors in her later juvenilia, that "world below" which drew her back compulsively. Herrepresentation of this Jane tallies with descriptions of the Angrian character

266

Jane Moore, and the letter writer seems to be Elizabeth Hastings or a later variant of that character. Christine Alexander traces Jane Moore back to an entry in Charlotte's Roe Head journal (ca. March 1837).3 During that period she was "far from home" at school and unable to focus on her usual heroines because she felt depressed and lacked privacy.4 Jane was Charlotte's creation entirely, not Branwell's, as Alexander also points out, and she may have gestated for weeks or months in Charlotte's thoughts before emerging as a protagonist. She becomes a major character in "Stancliffe's Hotel" (1838) and subsequently in "Henry Hastings" (1839). 5 From the outset, Charlotte casts this youngest daughter of a merchant as a woman who lacks depth and intelligence. She is, however, "a superb animal" 6 : beautiful and proud, yet also docile. In the words of the Angrian nobleman Sir William Percy (Jane] is what the world calls exquisitely sweet-tempered-a sweet-temper in a beautiful face is a divine thing to gaze on-& she has a kind of simplicity about her-which disclaims affectation-She does not know human nature-she does not penetrate into the minds of those about her-She does not fix her heart fervently on some point which it would be destructive to take it from-She has none of that strong refinement of the senses which makes some temperaments thrill with undefined emotion at changes or chances in the skies or the earth, in a softness in the clouds, a trembling of moonlight in water-an old & vast tree-the tone of the passing wind at night-or any other little accident of nature which contains in it more botheration than sense-Well, & what of that? 7 In "Henry Hastings," Jane's companion is the small, plain-featured Elizabeth Hastings, the sister of the title character. Elizabeth, whose brother is more dissolute than Branwell, earns a comfortable living as a teacher in Zamorna. "(S)he went to school at Paris-," Jane informs Sir William," & she speaks French very well-." Jane suspects, however, that Elizabeth is happiest in "the moors & mountains" of her native Pendleton.8 She has the capacity for feeling that Jane lacks and the moral

Letter (My Dear Jane)

267

strength missing in her brother; when Sir William begs her to become his mistress, she refuses even though she loves him. Whether Elizabeth draws away from Jane or leaves the city later, as the cycle continues, are conjectures that no evidence corroborates. But it is clear that four years after writing "Henry Hastings," Charlotte was again away at school and isolated and again elaborating on her Angrians. This time, however, she ventured to write in French, a shift with consequences for her methods. She had grown up writing her stories spontaneously, often in a trancelike state. As the settings, episodes, and dialogue came to her, so she set them down, without a struggle. But devoir composition had accustomed her to thinking more about the words she set on paper. And in French the idioms came less readily; nuancing her thoughts required effort. She seems to have begun with a plan for this letter: to have its writer upbraid Jane for her indolence and set her on a course of reform. For the first two paragraphs she sticks to that agenda, checking the flow of language only to refine her words: "indolence" for "laziness," "material" for "bodily." However, as she struggles to define Jane's slackness, a more extensive process of revision begins. She pauses after references to marriage and death that again imply the waste of a life passed thoughtlessly, and with the pause, prearrangement vanishes. Dropping her one-sided address to the absent Jane, together with her tacit pose of moral ascendancy, the writer digresses into a dialogue about her own subversive desires. As her imaginary questioners press her, the distinction between Jane's correspondent and Charlotte Bronte breaks down. It is Charlotte who perceives "through the colored glass of simile," Charlotte who suffers from crushing depression, and ultimately Charlotte who exempts one man from the charges she levels against lowlanders. Confession does not rid her of her demons; the monkey disappears because her hand strikes the desk, not because she wills herself back to reality. Still, by defining and describing these encounters, she transforms her addictive "habit" into a writer's activity. She also complicates that writer's identity-which, for once, is manifestly feminine. With the disappearance of the monkey and vine, the alleged correspondence resumes; but Jane becomes peripheral, an inexplicit "you," as a narrator with Charlotte's longings and biases replaces the letter-writing

268

Letter (My Dear Jane)

moralist. One evident longing was to walk in the mountains of a Scotland she knew only through her reading and through the imaginative reconstructions that she wrote into her juvenilia stories. 9 In an earlier devoir, "Evening Prayer in a Camp," she describes General Abercrombie's troop of Highland soldiers; but there she sets them in the deserts of Egypt rather than their native terrain. Here, she cites Glen Morven, Ben Nevis, and "Shihallion," names she could have come across in Scott's poems and novels or the magazines she read in adolescence. 10 She also sketches Abercrombie on the facing page, in Highland dress, with the mountains outlined in the background (fig. 7). 11 Her approach to these high places, by the gray rock and the cataract, probably required no invention. Haworth guidebooks still direct visitors to a nearby waterfall where two streams converge near a large stone shaped like a seat; 12 both streams and stone are smaller than the landmarks she envisions, but imagination could have enlarged them. Typically, these life-enhancing regions are set against the pestilent marshes of the flat country. The targets of her contempt are obvious enough; almost from the time of her arrival, Charlotte scorned the Belgians. In 1842 she wrote to Ellen Nussey, "If the national character ... is to be measured by the character of most of the girls in this school, it is a character singularly cold, selfish, animal and inferior." 13 ·The details of her mockery in this text, however, suggest it was written in her second year in Brussels, perhaps in the late spring or early summer. In her May 1, 1843, letter to Branwell, for example, she says about the "persons" in the pensionnat, "nobody ever gets into a passion here-such a thing is not known-the phlegm that thickens their blood is too gluey to boil.... The black Swan Mr. Heger is the sole veritable exception.... " 14 Aside from converting the swan into a clan chief (81), "My dear Jane" offers the same judgments. Its writer seems alienated, angry, and conflicted, but not about to fall into the "gulf of low spirits" that Charlotte envisions by September. 15 She can still make fun of her own austerity and try to "make amends" for her extremism. The closing words are also optimistic, a statement of intent to keep writing. But the fragment remains as she left it that day, a uniquely revealing memento.

Letter (My Dear lane)

269

25

Ch Bronte

[draft before correction]

May 31st

The Death

of Napoleon.

s

How should one envision this subject? With a great pomp of words or with simplicity? That depends on the idea that one has of Napoleon, or rather the idea of him that one is capable of having. The great orators and the great writers, who know their politicians, and who, having minds in some way on a level with that of Napoleon, can understand and

10

appreciate his legislative and military acts, may well celebrate his death with those solemn and pompous phrases that characterize the funeral oration; but the ordinary person, without distinguished talent, is incapable of following the flight of imperial eagles; he prefers to walk by the side of the young Corsican, the soldier of fortune, who, for him, is always

lS

the Corsican and soldier of fortune, even when the helmet and the uniform are concealed by a crown and regal robes. Notwithstanding, does this ordinary person have the right to express his feelings on the life or the death of Bonaparte? Does he know how to judge them? Yes; however insignificant he may be, he has the right to form an opinion and even to

20

express it: neither king nor emperor has authority to silence the inner at times

voice that " every man hears speaking in his heart and that approves or condemns, not only his own actions, but the actions of those around him. Thus one cannot deprive mediocrity of the right to judge genius, but it does not follow that her judgment will always be sound. The distinctive 2S

quality of mediocrity is moderation, a quality precious but cold; more often the result of a mild temperament, a happy balance of faculties, a gift of nature and God, than of great self-imposed efforts. Consequently, whatever the moralists may say, she is scarcely better suited to help us form a correct judgment of the actions of extraordinary men than is

270

The Death of Napoleon

Ch Bronte

Le 31 Mai

25

La Mort de

Napoleon. Comment doit-on envisager ce sujet? avec grande pompe de paroles ou

s

avec simplicite? C'est selon l'idee qu'on a de Napoleon ou plutOt l'idee qu'on est capable d'en avoir. Les grands orateurs et les grands ecrivains, qui se connaissent en politiques, et qui, ayant 1'esprit en quelque sorte au niveau de celui de Napoleon, peuvent comprendre et appecier ses actes militaires et legislatifs, peuvent bien cell~brer sa mort dans ces periodes

10

solonnelles et pompeuses qui caracterisent l'oraison funebre; mais le simple particulier, sans talent distingue, est incapable de suivre le vol des aigles imperiales; i1 aime mieux marcher acote du jeune Corse, soldat de fortune, qui, pour lui est toujours Corse et soldat de fortune,

m~me

quand le casque et l'uniforme sont masques par une couronne et des

lS

robes de roi. Cependant ce simple particulier, a-t-ille droit d'exprimer ses sentiments sur la vie ou la mort de Bonaparte? sait i1 en juger? Qui; quelque insignifiant qu 'il soit il a le droit de former une opinion et marne de l'exprimer: ni roi, ni empereur n'a autorite de faire taire cette voix parfois interieure que... tout homme entend parler dans son coeur et qui approuve

20

ou condamne, non seulement ses propres actions, mais les actions de ceux qui l'entourent. Ainsi on ne peut pas Oter ala mediocrite son droit de juger le genie, mais i1 n'en suit pas que son jugement soit toujours juste. La mediocrite a pour qualite distinctive la moderation, qualite precieuse mais froide, le resultat plutat d'un doux temperament, d'un heureux equilibre des facultes, don de la nature et de Dieu, que de grands efforts faits sur e1le-m~me. Par consequent, quoi que disent les moralistes elle n'est guere plus propre a nous aider a former unjugement correct sur les actions et les hommes extraordinaires, que ne l'est Ia

La Mort de Napoleon

271

2S

30

Prevention or Enthusiasm. Mediocrity can see the faults of Genius - its imprudence, its temerity, its ambition - but she is too cold, too limited, too egotistical to understand its struggles, its suffering, its sacrifices; she is envious too, and so its very virtues appear to her under a false and tarnished light. Let her then approach with respect the tomb hollowed

35

out of the rock of St. Helena and, while refusing to bow down in adoration before a god of flesh and clay, preserving her independent though inferior dignity of being, let her take care not to cast a single word of insult at the sepulchre, empty now, but consecrated in the past by Napoleon's remains.

40

Napoleon was born in Corsica and died on St. Helena; between the two islands there is but a vast continent and the immense ocean. He was born a notary's son and died a captive; between the two states there is but the career of a triumphant soldier, but a hundred fields of battle, but a throne, a sea of blood, and a Golgotha. Truly his life is a rainbow; the

45

two extreme ends touch the earth, the intervening arc spans the skies. Still, over Napoleon in his cradle a mother watched; in his childhood he had brothers and sisters; later, he had a wife who loved him very much; but Napoleon on his deathbed is alone, without mother, brother, sister, wife, or child. Let us run quickly through his exploits and then contem-

so

plate the abandonment of his final hour. There he is -exiled and captive -bound to an arid rock. He has committed the crime of Prometheus, and he undergoes his punishment. Prometheus wanted to make himself God and Creator, and he stole the fire of heaven to give life to the body he had formed; Bonaparte too wanted to create, not a man but an empire,

ss

and he tore the life from entire nations to give an existence, a soul, some reality, to his vast work. Jupiter, indignant at the impiety of Prometheus, bound him to a peak in the Caucasus; Europe, drained by the rapacity of Napoleon, lashed him to an isolated rock in the Atlantic. There perhaps he suffered all that they endure who, distant from home-

272

The Death of Napoleon

Prevention ou l'Enthousiasme.· La Mediocrite peut voir les defauts du

30

Genie, son imprudence, sa temerite, son ambition, mais elle est trop froide, trop bomee, trop egoiste pour connaitre ses luttes, ses sourfrances, ses sacrifices; aussi elle est envieuse, et ses vertus meme lui paraissent sous un jour faux et teme. Qu'elle s'approche done avec respect du tombeau creuse dans le rocher de Ste Helene et tout en refus-

35

ant de se courber en adoration devant un Dieu de chair et de boue, en conservant sa dignite d'etre independant quoique inferieur qu'elle se garde bien de jeter un seul mot d'insulte sur ce sepulcre, vide maintenant, mais consacre autrefois par les restes de Napoleon. Napoleon naquit en Corse et mourut en Ste Helene; entre les deux

40

Des il n'y a qu'un vaste continent et !'ocean immense; il naquit fils d'un notaire et mourut captif; entre les deux etats il n'y a qu~'une carriere de soldat triomphant, que cent champs de bataille, qu'un trOne, une mer de sang et une Golgothe. Vraiment sa vie c'est l'arc-en-ciel; les deux points extremes touchent la terre, la ligne courbe intermediaire mesure les

45

cieux. Cependant, sur Napoleon dans son berceau une mere veillait, dans son enfance il avait des freres et des soeurs, plus tard il avait une femme qui l'aimait beaucoup, mais Napoleon sur son lit de mort, est seul, sans mere, frere, soeur, femme ou enfant. Parcourons rapidement ses exploits et alors contemplons l'abandonnement de sa demiere heure.

so

II est Ia - exile et captif - lie a un rocher aride. II a commis le crime de Promethee et il subit sa peine; Promethee voulut se faire Dieu et Createur et il vola le feu du ciel pour animer le corps qu'il avait forme; Bonaparte a aussi voulu creer, pas un hom me mais un empire et il a arrache la vie a des nations entieres pour donner une existence, une !me, de Ia realite a sa vaste oeuvre.

Jupiter, indigne de l'impiete de

Promethee, l'attacha a une cime du Caucase -: l'Europe epuisee de la rapacite de Bonaparte l'a lie sur un roc isole de 1' Atlantique: La peutetre il subit tout ce qu'eprouvent ceux,- qui, eloignes de patrie et de famille,

La Mort de Napoleon

273

ss

60

land and family, deprived of the affection of their kind, know the soul's hunger and thirst; and is there a hunger more biting, a thirst more burning? Even when a stranger's hand would offer a little help, it must be rejected; for it is charity, not affection, which extends that hand; it is a sweet illusion offered through pity, but one must not let oneself be

65

deceived by it, because contempt is the brother of charity, and charity herself, however good, is quite cold. But to speak thus, is it not to attribute to Napoleon a weakness that he never knew? Is it not to show an utter incapacity to understand the spirit of that great man? The distinctive mark of Napoleon's genius, was it not his power to be wholly

70

self-sufficient? When did he allow himself to be enchained by a link of affection? Other conquerors have sometimes hesitated in their course to glory, halted by an obstacle of love or friendship, held back by a woman's hand, recalled by a friend's voice; never he. He had no need, like Ulysses, to tie himself to the mast nor to stop his ears with wax; he

75

did not dread the Sirens' song, he disdained it. He made himself a man of marble and iron, the better to execute his grand projects. Napoleon believed himself a whole nation in one body. The brothers, the sisters, the wife, the child that Bonaparte the Corsican would have allowed himself- not to love, that would be saying too much, but to consider as men

80

and women -appeared to the eyes of Napoleon, the mighty Frenchman, but as instruments, of which he made use so long as they contributed to advancing his designs and which he cast aside when they could no longer be useful to him. Let us not permit ourselves, then, to approach the Corsican's grave with a feeling of pity or to stain the rock that

85

covers his remains with tears. Let it not be said that the hand which separated him from his wife and his child was the hand of a tyrant; no! It was a hand like his own, a hand strong but not bloodstained. He who

extended that hand knew well how to read Napoleon; he was his equal, not his superior (there has never been one on earth), but his noble peer.

274

The Death of Napoleon

prive de !'affection de leurs semblables, connaissent la soif et la faim de

60

l'Ame; et y a-t-il faim plus mordante, soif plus brulante? Quand meme une main etrangere voudrait offrir un peu de secours, il faut la repousser; car, c'est la charite, ce n'est pas !'affection qui tend cette main c'est une douce illusion qu'on offre par pitie, mais par laquelle il ne faut pas se laisser tromper, car le mepris est frere de la charite, et la charite elle

65

meme quoique bonne est bien froide. Mais parter ainsi, n'est-ce pas attribuer aNapoleon une faiblesse qu'il ne connaissait pas? N'est-ce pas montrer une incapacite totale de comprendre I'esprit de ce grand homme? La marque distinctive du genie de Napoleon n'etait-ce pas son pouvoir

de suffire entierement a lui-meme? Quand s'est illaisse enchainer par

70

un lien d'affection? D'autres conquerants ont quelquefois hesite dans leur carriere de gloire, arretes par un obstacle d'amour ou d'amitie, retenus par une main de femme, rappeles par une voix d'amie - lui jamais- 11 n'avait pas besoin comme Ulysse de se tier au mAt ni de se boucher les oreilles de eire, il ne redoutait pas le chant des Sirenes il le

75

dedaignait; il se fit homme de marbre et de fer pour mieux executer ses grands projets. Napoleon se croyait tout un peuple dans un corps; les freres, les soeurs, la femme, l'enfant que Bonaparte le Corse se serait

permis- pas d'aimer, ce serait trop dire, mais de considerer comme des hommes et des femmes, ne paraissaient aux yeux de Napoleon, le puissant

Fran~tais,

80

que comme des instruments, dont il se servit tant qu'ils

contribuaient a avancer ses desseins et qu'il jeta de cOte quand ils ne pouvaient plus lui etre utiles. Qu'on ne se permet done pas de s'approcher du sepulcre du Corse avec un sentiment de pitie, ou de souiller Ia pierre, qui couvre ses restes, des larmes Qu'on ne dise pas que la main qui la separa de sa femme et de son enfant etait une main de tyran, non! c'etait une main pareille aIa sienne, une main forte mais pas sanglante; celui qui tendit cette main savait bien deviner Bonaparte, c'etait son egal, pas son superieur, il n'y en a jamais ete sur la terre, mais son noble

La Mort de Napoleon

275

85

90

"Marie-Louise is not Napoleon's wife," says the only victor whom defeat did not know how to humble, nor victory elate. "It is France that he has wed, it is France that he loves, and it is from France that I divorce and separate him because out of their union was born the destruction of Europe!• Some weak and treacherous voices cried out around the man

95

who thus pronounced sentence: "It is an abuse of your privilege as a conquerer; it is grinding the vanquished underfoot. Let England open her arms and take her enemy to her breast. • England would perhaps have hearkened to that advice, because in every country there are imbecilic souls who let themselves be seduced by flattery and who fear

100

reproach. But there came a man who did not know what fear was; who loved his homeland better than his own reputation; who, neither frightened by threats nor seduced by praises, presented himself before the national council and, intrepidly lifting his brow pure and bold, said, "Let Treason be silent! For it is treason that counsels you to temporize with

105

Bonaparte. I know the nature of all those wars from which Europe still am

bleeds, like a victim pierced by the sacrificer's knife; I "" resolved to shatter the blade that has dealt such deadly blows. We must banish Napoleon Bonaparte. Do not take fright at a word so harsh. I have no magnanimity, have I? It's all the same to me if you say so. My mission 110

here is not to make myself a reputation as a perfect hero; it is to seek a cure for that exhausted, wounded Europe whose real interests you neglect in dreaming about your good name You are weak, but I will help you. Send Bonaparte to the isle of St. Helena. Do not hesitate, do not reflect, do not seek another place; it is the only one, I tell you; I have thought

115

for you, and there is his destination. As for Napoleon, the man and soldier, I do not hold anything against him; he is a royal lion before whom you are only jackals; as for Napoleon the emperor, him I will eradicate!• The man who spoke thus has always known how to keep his promise, in fact he did eradicate the power of Napoleon.

276

The Death of Napoleon

paire. •Marie-Louise n'est pas Ia femme de Napoleon" dit le seul vainquer

90

que Ia defaite n'a pas su humilier, ni Ia victoire, enorgueillir "C'est Ia France qu'il a epousee, c'est Ia France qu'il aime et c'est de Ia France que je le divorce et que je le separe car de leur union enfantait Ia perdition de l'Europe!" De voix faibles et traitresses s'ecrierent autour de celui qui pronon~a ainsi sentence "C'est abuser de votre droit comme

95

conquerant, c'est fouler aux pieds le vaincu; que l'Angleterre ouvre ses bras et qu'elle

~ive

son ennemi dans son sein. • L' Angleterre aurait

peutetre ecoute ce conseil, car en tout pays il y a des Ames imbeciles qui se laissent seduire par Ia flatterie et qui craignent le reproche. Mais un homme s'est trouve qui ne savait pas ce que c'etait que Ia crainte; qui

100

aimait sa patrie mieux que sa propre renommee, qui ni effraye par les menaces, ni seduit par les louanges, s'est presente devant le conseil national et levant intrepidement son front pur et hardi, a dit, "Que Ia trahison se taise! car c'est Ia trahison qui vous conseille de temporiser avec Bonaparte. Moi, je sais ce que sont que toutes ces guerres dont

105

l 'Europe saigne encore, comme une victime percee du couteau du sacrifisuis · cateur: je "resolu de briser la lame qui a frappe des coups si funestes. II faut bannir Napoleon Bonaparte. Ne vous effrayez pas d'un mot si dur - Je n'ai pas de magnanimite- n'est-ce pas? Cela m'est bien egal si vous dites cela; rna mission ici, ce n'est pas de me faire une reputation

110

de hero parfait, c'est de chercher une guerison pour cette Europe blessee et epuisee dont vous negligez les vrais interets pour songer

a votre

renommee Vous etes faibles, mais je vous aiderai. Envoyez Bonaparte

al'ile de Ste Helene; n'hesitez, ne reflechissez pas, ne cherchez pas un autre endroit; c'est le seul je vous dis, j'ai pense pour vous, et c'est

Ia

sa destination - Quant aNapoleon, homme et soldat, je ne lui en veux pas, c'est un lion royal aupres de qui vous n'etes que des chacals, quant

a Napoleon empereur, je l'extirperai!"

Celui qui parla ainsi a toujours

su garder sa promesse, en effet il extirpa le pouvoir de Napoleon. J'ai

La Mort de Napoleon

277

llS

120

I have said that this man is the peer of Napoleon; in genius, yes. In rectitude of character, in loftiness of aim, he is neither equal nor superior; he is of another species. Napoleon Bonaparte prized his reputation and greatly loved celebrity; Arthur Wellesley cares neither for one nor the other. Public opinion had a great value for Napoleon; for Wellington,

125

public opinion is a notion, a nothing that the breath of his mighty will blows away, like a soap bubble. Napoleon flattered the people and sought applause; Wellington treats them brusquely. If his own conscience approves, that is enough; all other praise burdens him.

In

revenge, the people, who adored Bonaparte, have often been irritated at 130

Wellington's arrogance and showed their hatred by gnashing their teeth and howling like wild beasts. Then the proud Coriolanus raised his Roman head, crossed his sinewy arms, and held himself erect upon his threshold, as if awaiting the attack. Alone and fearless he thus braved a whole crowd in a furor; before long, the people recognized their supe-

135

rior and, ashamed of their rebellion, came to lick the feet of the master; but the haughty Satrap scorns their homage as much as their hatred and, in the streets of London, before his ducal palace of Apsley, he has no fear of spurning it with disdain. Despite that pride he is modest; his own exploits he avoids eulogy; he rejects panegyric; never does he speak of ..lt\rusltlf,

140

and never does he suffer anyone else to mention them to him. His character equals in grandeur and surpasses in truthfulness that of every other hero, ancient or modern. The glory of Napoleon grew in a night, like Jonah's vine, and within a night, it withered.

The glory of

Wellington is like one of the ancient oaks that shade the mansion of his 145

fathers on the banks of the Shannon. It grows slowly; it needs time not only to spread its large branches but to sink deep roots, roots that will twist themselves around the solid foundations of the island whose Savior and Defender he has been.

278

The Death of Napoleon

dit que cet homme est le paire de Napoleon: en genie, oui; en droiture

120

de caractere, en elevation de but il n'est ni egal ni superieur, il est d'une autre espece.

Napoleon Bonaparte tenait

a sa

reputation et aimait

beaucoup Ia celebrite, Arthur Wellesley ne se soucie ni de l'une ni de l'autre. L'opinion publique avait une grande valeur pour Napoleon; pour Wellington l'opinion publique est un idee, un rien que le souffle de sa

12S

puissante volonte fait disparaitre, comme une bulle de savon. Napoleon flattait le peuple et cherchait les applaudissements; Wellington le brusque; si sa propre conscience l'approuve c'est assez, toute autre louange l'obsede. En revanche, le peuple, qui adorait Bonaparte, s'est souvent irrite contre la morgue de Wellington eta temoigne sa haine avec

130

des grincements de dents et des hurlements de bete fauve; alors le tier Coriolane a leve sa tete romaine, croise ses bras nerveux et s'est tenu debout sur son seuil, comme pour attendre l'attaque. Seul et sans crainte il a brave ainsi toute une foule en fureur, bientot le peuple a reconnu son superieur et, honteux de sa rebellion, est venu lecher les pieds du maitre,

13S

mais le hautain Satrape meprise son hommage autant que sa haine et dans les rues de Londres, devant son palais ducal d'Apsley, il n'a pas craint de le repousser avec dedain. Malgre cette fierte il est modeste; il se ses propres exploits

soustrait d'eloge, il rejette le panegyrique, jamais il ne parle deAlt.\, et jamais il ne souffre qu'un autre lui en parle: son caractere egale en

140

grandeur et surpasse en verite celui de tout autre hero ancien ou moderne. La gloire de Napoleon croit[ra?] dans une nuit comme Ia vigne de Jonah, et dans une nuit elle fut fletrie. La gloire de Wellington est comme un des anciens chenes qui ombragent le chAteau de ses peres sur les rives du Shannon; elle croit lentement, il lui faut du temps pas seulement de pousser des larges branches mais d'enfoncer des profondes racines des racines qui s'entortilleront avec les fondements solides de l'ile dont il a ete le Sauveur et le Defenseur

La Mort de Napoleon

279

14S

A century more and perhaps England will know the worth of her 150

hero; a century more and all Europe will know how much Wellington deserves its recognition.

280

The Death of Napoleon

Encore un siecle et 1' Angleterre connaitra peutetre la valeur de son hero; encore un siecle et l'Europe entiere saura combien Wellington a droit a sa reconnaissance.

La Mort de Napoleon

281

150

Ch Bronte

[corrected draft]

May 31st

The Death of

Napoleon. treat

How should one envision this subject? With (a great) pomp of (wokds)

5

oi with simplicity? That depends on ~e idea that one t~of Napoleon,,or Politicians are men.

r~ther the idea ~f him that one is ca~able of having

The great orators let those whose

and the great writers, who know their politicittfts, llftd whe, hft'liftg Politics is a science.

the gt!llills

minds, in some way on a level with ~of Napoleon, can understand and appreciate his legislative and military acts, mey well celebrate his death

10

ill

with those solemn and pompous phrases that characterize the funeral oramortal

IIIIISt

tion; but the ordinary ~. without distinguished talent,

renoMnCe

~e

and be COIJIDII

mfollowing the flight of imperial eagles; he prefef'S to walk by the side

of of the young Corsican,¥ the soldier of fortune, who for him is always the the crown hos replaced

hos

Corsican and soldier of fortune, even whenvthe helmet and the uniform¥

15

disappemwl

the

are concealed by

the

~r's

cloak.

a crown and rregall robes I.

But

011

NeWAthstftfttling, does ili.is

fomudate his opinion

then

ordinary person have the right to express his feelingsvon the life or the Om he set himself 11p as

death of Bonaparte? Bees he lfftew hew te judge them? Yes; however aman

very good 20

hisown

insignificant he may be, he has the right to form an opinion and even to state ~

it: neither king nor emperor has the authority to silence the inner et-fltBe&

voice that ...every man hears speaking in his heart and that approves or of others

condemns, not only his own actions, but the actions ef..these around him. ~

Thus one cannot de.prive mediocrity of the right to judge genius, but it What ordinarily

does not follow that her judgment will always be sound. distillgllishes

25

td

L~e distinctive ill'flll«l~-1JIIII tBefe

Qll.ilityJ of mediocrity is moderation, a quality precious but cold; 'chis less

\he result of a

temperament,~ apy balance of facul

rather

es, a

gi t of nature and God, an of great self-im sed efforts. Consequ ntly, and withoflt slff/icielll scope

w atever the moralist may say, she is stu~ely

ely better suited¥ to help

e them[?]

us fefm-.a ~ judgmeM-ef the actiefts of extraordinary men than is

282

The Death of Napoleon

Ch Bronte

Le 31 Mai

La Mort

de Napoleon. tTtJiter

s

Comment doit-on envisaeer ce sujet? avec (gdnde) pompe (de pakoles) ouavec simplicite? q·est selon ~~~ qu'on a de Na~leon ou plut6t

l'iJ~ qu'on est capab~ d'en avoiJ.

Les grands orateurs et les grands Les politiques

v

qu cera dollt

·

sont des hommes.

ecrivains, qui se connaissent en politique!, et qui, ayan:t l'esprit en pel~!

• ghlk

quelque sorte au niveau de ~i de Napoleon, ~ comprendre et

lA politique est une science./

111

apprecier ses actes militaires et legislatifs, pett¥e~tt ~Heft celebref sa mort

10

en EI&M ~s periodes solonnelles et pompeuses qui caracterisent l'oraison doit reaoru:er tl

monel

funebre; mais le simple particulier, sans talent distingue, ~e ~ et se colltotter de

suivre le vol des aigles imperiales; il !time mieu:~t marcher a c6te du jeune du

Corse, soldat de fortune, qui, pour lui est toujours Corse et soldat de v

Ia COfOYJliiU! a rmrploci

qu

a disptUM

Ia

fortune, meme quand VIe casque et vl 'uniforme sont masgues par une le manteau l'empereur

15

done

Mais un

couronne et des robes de froil /. CepeBd&Rt 4e simple particulier, a-t-il de fontuder s011 opillion

le droit d'exprimer ses sentiments v sur Ia vie ou Ia mort de Bonaparte? un homme

peut-U s'mger

saH-H en jugek? Oui; quelque insignifiant quAl soit il a le droit de se

Ill dire

former une opinion et meme de l'e:~tl'fimer: ni roi, ni empereur n'a I au-

tr. bon

perfei&

torite de faire taire cette voix interieure que " tout homme entend parter

20

dans son coeur et qui approuve ou condamne, non seulement ses propres d'autrui

actions, mais les actions de-eetHt qpi l'entourent. Ainsi on ne peut pas colltuter

ne s •

slier ala mediocrite son droit de juger le genie, mais illt'en suit pas que ~ qui distill

son jugement soit toujours juste.

l

z c'ut 'Luea mediocrite a (.pour qui qpa!ite distinctiveJ est moins d'ordinaire

~ t!l

resultat ~ d'un d ux

Ia moderation, q:uaJ.ite precieuse mais froide, l

mperament, d'un heure

equilibre des facul s, don de Ia nature et e l

plutbt

1eu,

i

11 -

m . Par consequent, q i ...

e disent les moralistes elle n'est guere pi

JIOII1' ks[?]

r

stJilremnrl

es

sans ponie s'4f/isallte

propre a nous aide ~

d

fermer tift jugetiteftt ~ 8tlf les acdeas et ies hommes extraordinaires,

La Mort de Napoleon

283

25

Prevention or Enthusiasm. I Meclieefity can • t e faults of [Pmatioll] hils a folse eye tl1ld seer evt!IJihbtg darldy; •

30

life; Mediocrity is fBtl ['l] myopic. -she [can] discover

imprudence, it temerity, its ambition- but she is too cold, t

limited,

appreciate them. - the

too egotistical o understand its struggles, its suffering, its sac 'flees; she is envious too and so its vel)! virtues appear to her under

false and

tarnished light Let her then approach with respect the tomb hollowed out of the rock of St. Helena and, while refusing to bow down in adora-

3S

tion before a god of flesh and clay, preserving her independent though inferior dignity of being, let her take care not to cast a single word of

very g

insult at the sepulchre, empty now, but consecrated in the past by Napoleon's remains. at 40 """"'

very good/ opposition remtJrkably fine./

-11-

Napoleon was born in Corsica and died on St. Helena; between the tl1ld blll'lling desert

two islands there is but a vast eeatiaeat and the immense ocean. He was t111 ordituJry gentlemtlll's till Dfii#!TOT bill wilho111 crown tl1ld ill irolls born a aetllfy's son and died a eaptive/; between the two states tftefe-ts /tis cradle tl1ld /tis tomb, wluJt is there? -

eufthe career of a triumphant soldier, Mt a httad!'eEI fields of battle, ltat thm a prison [his co.lfbJ Tj

wlttJiH!

a throne, a sea of blood, ftfld a Gelgethe. !ffttly his life is a rainbow; the 4S

two extreme ends touch the earth, the intervening arc spans the skies. /tis father's horue

Still, over Napoleon in his cradle a mother watched; in his ehildheed he in/tis palace

to love him;

~ Ill }iftl'll

had brothers and sisters; later, vhe had a wife wfte ~him very much; ~

but Napoleon on his deathbed is alone, without mother, brother, sister, Others have reco11111ed tl1ld wiU recoiUII

wife, or child. Let tiS ftlft

so

~tttielfty

thfettgh his eJtpleits BRd then contem-

plate the abandonment of his final hour. There he is - exiled and captive enc1uJilletl on

new

"""'

- bound tO an arid rock. He lias eemmitted the etime ef Prometheus, and the chostisement of his pride be he undergoes hls punishment. Prometheus wanted to make himself God mode fl'!ltiY with

and Creator, and he st~le the fire of heaven to give life to the body he

ss

had formed; Bonaparte too wanted to create, not a man but an empire, for-I/till and he tore the life from entire nations to give an existence, a soul, seme gigantic

reality; to his vast work. Jupiter, indignant at the impiety of Prome~

providl!nce, to p1111ish

the

theus, bo~nd him to a peak in the Caucasus; Eufope, dfftiRed ey the the Corsict111 chailletJ

rapacity of Bonaparte, la~hed him to an isolated rock in the Atlantic. There pekhaps he suffered all that they endure who, distant from home-

284

The Death of Napoleon

que ne l'est la Prevention ou l'Enthousiasme:

I La Metlieefite peut vOir

30

[.l.G lWwlttiml] a l'odlftua et volt tolll a noir; l'Endunisiasme WJit pills gTIIIId file JIIIIJITe; Ia Jlldlocritl est 11¥1f1 [?] miope. - elle (pefll] dlcouvrir

les defauts du enie, su imprudences, sa tem~'te, son ambition, mais en apprlcier.- les

elle est trop f ide, trop bomee, trop egoiste

ur ~tre ses luttes,

ses souffrance , ses sacrifices; aussi elle est en

use, et ses vertus mem~

lui paraissent

us un jour faux et teme. Qu'elle s'approche done avec

respect du tombeau creuse dans le rocher de Ste Helene et tout en re-

35

fusant de se courber en adoration devant un Dieu de chair et de boue, en conservant sa dignite d'etre, independant quoique inferieur, qu'elle se tr b

garde bien de jeter un seul mot d'insulte sur ce sepulcre, vide maintenant, mais consacre autrefois par les restes de Napoleon.

a

Napoleon naquit en Corse et mourut en Ste Helene; entre les deux brlUtutt dbert

d

iles il n'y a qu'un vaste eefttifte&t et I' ocean immense; il naquit fils d'un simple gentilholrriM empereru mt.ris SIUIS COID'OII1Ie et diJIIs les fers Betitife et mourut eapftf/; entre les deux etats 1il ft'y 1t EtUt' ttfte carriere des

'lUI

s011 bercea et sa tombe tpl'y a-t-il? -Ia t

d~ soldat triomphant, q~e dnt champs de bataille, c\ft'un trOne, une mer pflis IUie prVOII (SOli cerclleill) tltHtl

de sang et ttfte

Gelge~s.

-11-

--

40

tr bon/ opposition rem~~rquablement

belle./

Vfftilftellt sa vie c'est l'arc-en-ciel; les deux

points extremes touchent la terre, la ligne courbe intermediaire mesure

45

les cieux. Cependant, sur Napoleon dans son berceau une mere veillait, Ia mt.Jis011 de SOli pqe diJIIs SOli palais efll dans Seft ellfllftee il avait des freres et des soeurs, plus tardvil avlli.t une pr. l'o.imer;- etHIPfiHitB Jlf'. , . , , , .

~

femme qtti l'ili!YU beaucoup, mais Napoleon sur son lit de mort, est seul, D'alllres ont dit et dirolll

sans mere, frere, soeur, femme ou enfant. Pltfeettrefts fllpieemeftt ses ~

9pleits et alQrs contemplons l'abandon~ de sa demiere heure. 11

so

enclulinlsliT

est la - exile et captif noMWtlll

en

Promethee et il subit

lle aun rocher aride.

11& eelftlftis le erime ee

le cMtimellt de so11 orgfleil

~

lire

peine; Promethee voulut se-fltire Dieu et Crea-

dhobt.J

teur et il vola le feu du ciel pour animer le corps qu'il avait forme; ~

non

Bonaparte a aussi voulu creer, pas un homme mais un empire et ll a ar-

-m

rache la vie a des nations entieres pour donner une existence, une !me, gigantesque

6e l& reel:ite a sa YttSte oeuvre. Jupiter, indigne de 1'impiete de Promethee, le scella

provilleru:e pr prutir

Ia

u

i'att!cha a tHte cime du Caucase -: ld Eufope ~ ae la rapacite d~ Corse

encluJtnl

Bonaparte l'a Ite sur un roc isole de I' Atlantique: La pent!tre il subit la

Ia

tout ce qu'eprouvent ceux,- qui, eloignes de patrie et de famille, prive de La Mort de Napoleon

285

55

fall prey

land and family, deprived of the affection of their kind, latew to the soul's

60

hunger and thirst; Iand is there a hunger more biting, a thirst more burnvulture

ing? [Ev

when a stranger's hand w uld offer a little help, it m st be

of

Prometheus

rejected; or it is charity, not affectio , which extends that hand; t is a sweet ill sion offered through pity, but one must not let one If be

65

deceived y idbecause contempt is t e brother of charity, and c arity

,_,

herself, owever good, is quite col . But to speak thus, is it not to attribute to Napoleon avweakness that he never knew? If't not to show an utter if.pacity to understand the ~pirit of that great

an? The dis-

~as it not his pow

to be wholly

tinctive m k of Napoleon's genius, ill his life

70

self-suffic ent? Whenvdid he allow himself to be enchained by a link of affection? Other conquerors have selftetilftes hesitated in their course to glory, halted by an obstacle of love or friendship, held back by a woman's hand, recalled by a friend's voice; never he. He had no need, oftheship

like Ulysses, to tie himself to the masr nor to stop his ears with wax; 75

he did not dread the Sirens' song, he disdained it. He made himself a ftlftft of marble and iron, the better to execute his grand 1101 a mtlll bill the embodiment of a IIIJiion t!miJ6tl His

projects. Napoleon his

believed himself'a whole nation ia eae heey. I Tfte brothers, tie sisters

his

Josephine fJIIIl his imperial offspring

tfte wife; the ehild that Bonaparte the Corsican wetdd h&Ye &Hewed hilft Pi tluJt he hllll them self- Bet tO loved, that would be saying too much, httt te eeasider ttS lfteft the mtlll ill him WllS detul, fJIIIl the emperor considered them

80

llftd.wemen- appeared to the eyes of Napoleon, the mighty Frenchman, v but as instruments, of which he made use so long as they contfihttted te were uefid

ttd'rftfteiag his desigas aad which he cast aside when they eettle ae ceased to be

laager he u~ful te-ftim.

I

Let us not permit ourselves, then, to approach with tears

the Corsican's grave with a feeling of pity or to stainv the rock that his soul would scom all thot. 85

It has been said, I blow,

covers his remains, with tettrsv Let it aet he said that the hand which separated him from his wife and his child was the hand of a tyrant; no! er

This hand

It was a hand like his own, a hand strongv but not bloodstained. He-wfte WllS

tluJt of a

mtlll

tluJt mtlll WllS

wlw hllll knoWJt

ill gellills,

exteftded that-ltand !.mew well how to read Napoleon; lte was his equal, Napoleon

hllll

not his superior (there has never heeft one on earth), httt his aehle ~-

286

The Death of Napoleon

SOIII

en proie

!'affection de leurs semblables, eeaaeisseat tlla soif et la faim de l'ame; I

60

et y a-t-il faim plus mordante, soifplus brulanteiQuan meme une main voudrait offrir un peu e secours, il faut 1 repousser; car, c'est 1 charite, ce n'est pas l'af

tion qui tend cet

main c'est une

vautour de Promethee

douce · lusion qu'on offre par pi , mais par laquelle il ne faut pas se laisser

mperJcar le mepris est frere de la charite, t la charite elle

65

meme uoique bonne est bien froi e. Mais parler ainsi, n'est-ce pas atlulmtlifte

tribuer l Napoleon une vfaiblesse qu'il ne connaissait pas? N'jst-ce pas montrlune incapacite totale de crprendre 1'esprit de ce grand homme? La mar ue distinctive du genie d Napoleon n'etait-ce pas so pouvoir se dans sa vie

de suf e entierement llui-meme Quand ·s•est illaisse enchainer par

70

un lien d'affection? D'autres conquerants ont quelquefeis hesite dans leur carriere de gloire, arretes par un obstacle d'amour ou d'amitie, Ia

retenus par une main de femme, rappeles par tHte voix d'une amie -lui d• IIIJllire

et11

jamais- II n'avait pas besoin comme Ulysse de se lier au rna( ni de se avec de fa boucher les oreilles de eire, il ne redoutait pas le chant des Sirenes ille

75

dedaignait; il se fit itemtBe de marbre et de fer pour mieux executer ses pas lUI homnre llfiJis l'ilu:tmtotimJ d'IUI periple . _

grands projets. Napoleon se croyait• tltut un peuple dftfts tift e8fi'S I; ies fr~res,

ies soeurs,

-P-1 les a-t-il

Josiphbte et SOli rejetoll imperial ia femme•, 1'eRf&Rt tftte Bonaparte le Corse

se ser&it

s ~-pas a•aim~f. ce serait trop dire, fftftis de eeasi~r eemme des hail lfft111 en llli, er I'emperelll' 11e les co · l'homme~

et des femmes, ne paraissaient aux yeux de Napoleon, le puis-

80

sant Fran~s.v que comme des instruments, dont il se servit tant qu'ils jrlrellt llliles

contfihu&ieat l &wftfteer ses desseias et qu'il jeta de cOte quand ils ne cessb'elll tk l'ilre

pet¥;&ieat plus lui atre utiles I . Qu' on ne se permette done pas de s' apdelt11711eS

procher du sepulcre du Corse avec un sentiment de pitie, ou de souillerv

,. a

011

a

1

je le sais

la pierre, qui couvre ses restesL dt lermes Qu'ea ae dik pAs que la • SOli lml! replldienJit lOIII cela. J fu main qui la separa de sa femme et de son enfant etait une main de pillS

tyran, non! c'etait une main pareille lla sienne, une main· forte mais 11011

cette lllllill hail celle d '1111 " - e qrd IJWiit

pas sanglante; eeltti fltlt teadit cette-fttain 5IMtit bien .ru deviner Bonacer " - e hail en gbtk, 11011 Napollmt parte, c'etait son egal, p&t son superieur, i1 n'~ en a jamais ete sur la

La Mort de Napoleon

287

85

had said thot man l1tal BIBieltB'tl

•Marie-Louise is not Napoleon's wife, • says the eRly 'tieter whom

90

had

been tJble

thot

defeat did not knGw hGw to humble, nor victory elate. •It is France that Napoleon

lie has wed, it is France that he loves, and it is from France that I divorce begets

and separate him because ettt-ef their union was befft the destruction of The [voice] ofwetlklings or traitresses

protested

Europe!" Beme weak and treacherous voices cried-ettt around the man against lite thot

95

victory's

•n is an abuse of yettf privilege ftS-1l

whe thus preReufteee sentence:

eeRquerer; it is grinding the vanquished underfoot. Let England open [receive] her disarmed

as a gllt!SI

her arms and take Iter enemy te her breast." England would perhaps have hearkened to that advice, because in every country there are soft cl timorous

soon

or frightened by

imbeeilie souls whe let themsel•;es be seduced by flattery ftfttl whe fear lflttJws n61 never brew 100

is

·

reproach. But there came a man who did not know what fear was; who impassive

loved his homeland better than his own reputation; who, neither frightimpervious to

to

s

he

ened by threats nor seduced by praises, presented himself before the he dared to say:

[coiiiiCil] of the nation

R&tieft&l council and, intrepidly lifting his brow pure and bold, S&itl, •Let Treason be silent! For it is treason that counsels you to temporize with lOS

Bonaparte. I know the nature of &H those wars from which Europe still am _ ,

bflleher's

ll1fller

bleeds, like a victim piereetl by the sadificer's knife; I " resel·;etl to the arm

finish with

shatter the bl&tle that has dealt such deadly blows. We must baliish Napoleon Bonaparte. Do not take fright at a word so harsh. I have no what they

so be it

of me

magnanimity, h&ve-I? It's all the same to me if-yett say sa. My mission 110

1114gllflllimo'"J to here is not to make myself a reputation as a perfect hero; it is to seek a Ewope, which is dying, drained ofresoruces cl blood, and cure fer that elthttttstetl, wettfltletl Bttrepevwhose real interests you neglect ~ a repliiiJtion fiir clemency in dreaming about yo~r good name You are weak, but I will help you. over what gtHHklte

Send Bonaparte to the isle ef St. Helena. Do not hesitate,

w

sllitab[?]

[?)

~

reflect

reftecte4

tllld tle-ftet seek another place; it is the only one, I tell you; I have thougtit he 11111st be and IIOM!here else.

115

for you, aitd ~is his tlestift&tieft. As for Napoleon, the man and soldier, I do not hold anything against him; he is a royal lion before whom bllt

as

Napoleon, thot's dfllerent

you are only jackals; &Her Napoleon the emperor; him I will eradicate!• The man who spoke thus has always known how to keep his promise, itt this one like aU the others

faet, he did er&die&te the pewer ef Napoleon I.

288

The Death of Napoleon

terre, meis seR Reale p~. "Marie-Louise n'est pas la femme de Napoavait dit eel ee ~ -~

90

[a]vait R"

leon• dit le settl vainqu~ que Ia defaite n'a pas iu humilier, ni Ia vichomme]

que NapoUon

toire, enorgueillir "C'est Ia France~ a epousee, c'est Ia France qu'il aime et c'est de Ia France que je le divorce et que je le separe car de leur e

du

~

oudu

union enfantitt Ia perdition de l'Europe!" Ibe voix faibles et traitresses contre Itt cette

protuterent

u

s~nt autour de celui «ttti preRe&~aai&si sentence "C'est abuser de de Ia vicloin ¥6tfe

95

droit eemme eeRftHerant, c'est fouler aux pieds le vaincu; que dbartnJ

COIIIIM h/)te SOli

l' Angleterre ouvre ses bras et qu'elle r~oive seR ennemi dllfts seft sein.• L' Angleterre aurait peutetre ecoute ce conseil, car en tout pays il y a des moUes cl tilnorles bil!ntbt

ou qj'raym par

t·

ames iffte6eiles qui se leissent seduifes par la flatterie et ctei efttig&ent PI 'a jamais SK

INfif

st

le reproche. Mais un homme s'est trouve qui ne ~t pas ce que c'eieit

100

a

que Ia crainte; qui aimhlt sa patrie mieux que sa propre renommee, qui impassible lllf1

il se

illacct!SSible tua

ni effraye par les menaces, ni seduit par les louanges,

~

presente de-

de Ia PIIJtion

vant le conseil nati~nal et levant intrepidement son front pur et hardi, a il osa dire:

dtt, "Que Ia trahison se taise! car c'est Ia trahison qui vous conseille de

temporiser avec Bonaparte. Moi, je sais ce que sont ftlte telttes ces guerres SOliS

lOS

le

dont l'Europe saigne encore, comme une victime pereee de couteau du boliCher 5ttis YeKJ ,.fJTIPie sacriflcateur: je" reslllu de briser \a l&me qui a frappe des coups si en fo.lir avec

funestes. 11 faut ba~nir Napoleon Bonaparte. Ne vous effrayez pas d'un soil

mot si dur- Je n'ai pas de magnanimite- &'est ee pas? Cela.t m'est bien Sf! de IIIGi"

flll'Oll

egal fi-¥etts dite!t cela; rna mission iet;-ee n'est pas de me faire une -~

a

110

l'Efll'OJH! qlli

reputation de heros parfaAt, c'est de chercher uae guerii'Seft pettf eette merm lpflisie de 1'WIOJITCU cl de sag e1

/Europe blessee et epuisee" dont vous negligez les vrais KPII!

int~rets

pour

---fl) de c(t!mence

songer av~tre renommee I Vous etes faibles, mais je vous aiderai. Enpos tl qtiOi 1Hm .. iflc['l]

voyez Bonaparte aJ...!.ile.ee Ste Helene; n'hesitez, &e reflechi~ pa5;etfte COPI\1[?)

riJikhi/

cherchez pas un autre endroit; c'est le seul je vous dis, j'ai penAe pour flll'il doit ltre e1 pos aillelus. -

vous, &t c'est !i Sll destiRatieR

Quant aNapoleon, homme et soldat, je

ne lui en veux pas, c'est un lion royal aupres de qui vous n'etes que des mais NapoUoj

chacals, quan

c'ut t111tre clwse

a Napoleon empereur," je l'~ai!"

Celui qui parla

celle-ci COIIIIM toutes les tu11res

ainsi a toujours su garder sa promesse,

eR

effet il I!"=HFf'll le pew:ei:r de

La Mort de Napoleon

289

llS

For

eqrud

120

I. have said that this man is the peet' of Napoleon; in genius, yes. In

8trellgm of chartu:ter, for fpr

rectitude ef ehftflleter, in loftiness of effit, he is neither equal nor supeto him

1WIS

avid for

rior-; he is of another species. Napoleon Bonaparte prized his reputation W&H[?J for~ glory

aBEl gfe&ll.y ltwed celebrity; Arthur Wellesley cares neither for one nor Poprdarity

a thillg of

1WIS

's eyes

in

the other. Public opinion hae-ft great value for Napoleon; for Wellington, TllltiOr

125

public opinion is a no\ion, a nothing that the breath of his mighty will WeUington treats them brruqaely;

blows away, like a soap bubble. Napoleon flattered the people aitd the other CIJI'es only for

the one their

sought applause; WeUiftgteft tfeftts them bftlsqttely 1 • If. his when it

ewtt

con-

l1ilefJHie

seience I~s. that is enough; all other praise burdens him. Itt Also those [bill] got angry, rebelled agains~ ~. tie people, who adored Bonaparte, have-eften been ihite~ at\ and when they twre ing

130

fT!JWling

Wellington's arrogancq.e showed their hatred by gmlshing their teeth [dl twiliM M

IIIOtlerp

and howling like wild beasts., !Rteft the proud Coriolanus raised his h

~ne

Roman head, crossed his sinewy arms, and helEI himself ereet upon his

« CB 's a, and CB corrects again above; H's accent on resistai(. 24. H's accent on preparatifs; CB writes cette first, then erases tte to form ce. 41. First ink resumes after blanche. 43. CB corrects exprima by adding it; H's accent on resignation. 51. CB corrects accent on seches. 64. CB corrects crut to crus. 65. CB adds accent toe, deletes last two letters of epaisses. 68. H adds lights to flamme; CB > s and converts comma to a colon. 72. CB starts to write Du, converts to Au. COMMENTS

1. "The Spell, An Extravaganza," CBEW2.2:193. The idea of such a sacrifice may also have come from Byron's Sardanapalus, in which the Greek slave Myrrha elects to die on the hero-king's pyre. CB alludes to this poem in "The Scrap Book," CBEW2.2:365. Alexander also notes an indirect allusion to suttee earlier in that tale (343). 2. JE, 343-44 (ch. 24, mod. eds. ). 3. Gaskell, 11.238. When Gaskell interviewed Heger in 1856, he cited this poem in connection with "The Death of Moses," but his memory was not always reliable. 4. "[Elle m]ontre aux Anglais son bras ademi-consume. I Pourquoi reculer d'epouvante, I Anglais? son bras est desarme. I La ftamme l'environne, et sa voix expirante I Murmure encore ("She shows the English her half-consumed arm. I Why recoil in horror, I Englishmen? her arm is disarmed./ The flame surrounds it, and her expiring voice I Still murmurs ... " (Delavigne, 27). 5. Since sati is now the accepted term, I use it rather than suttee. 6. [Georgy Croly], "Burning oflndian Widows," Blackwood's 23 (February 1828): 161-62. 7. Juliet Barker alerted me to this possible source. She also cites "a reference in Patrick [Bronte]'s letter to the Leeds Mercury of 16 March 1844 to widow burning being a matter rather less urgent than the number of accidental deaths in fires in [England]" (letter to the author, February 4, 1992). Twenty years earlier, the matter seemed more urgent; Patrick was an inaugural member of the Church Missionary Association founded at Bradford in 1813 (60). 8. See the Textual Notes for lines 7 and 21. 9. Anonymous editorial comment in the Baptist Missionary Society quarterly, The Friend of India 7 (1824): 284. This volume contains reports of four completed satis and one prevented case. 10. DNB 2:295.

390

Notes to Pages 3-10

11. Mani, 396. Men were not the sole observers, however; I have read two accounts by women who presumably accompanied their husbands. 12. The word sati derives from the Hindu word for "saint." Widows by their death were said to guarantee themselves and their spouses access to heaven. 13. Bertha, the Creole from the other Indies, nearly succeeds in burning Rochester alive when she leaps to her own death at Thornfield. St. John, in urging Jane to go with him to India, hurries her toward death in a stifling climate, an end "almost equivalent to committing suicide" (JE, 528 [ch. 35, mod. eds.]). His sister Diana endorses Jane's resistance, agreeing that she should not "be grilled alive in Calcutta" (530). On these and other linked allusions-more broadly, on the novel's colonialist discourse-see Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, "Three Women's Texts and a Critique of Imperialism," in Race, Writing, and Difference, ed. Henry Louis Gates (Chicago: U ofP Press, 1986), 262-80; May Ellis Gibson, "The Seraglio or Suttee: Bronte's Jane Eyre," Postscript4 (1987): 1-8; Laura E. Donaldson, "The Miranda Complex: Colonialism and the Question of Feminist Reading," Diacritics 18 (fall1988): 65-77; Susan L. Meyer, "Colonialism and the Figurative Strategy of Jane Eyre," Victorian Studies 32 (winter 1990): 247-68; and Jenny Sharpe, "Colonialism, Gender, and Resistance: The Racial Identity of Female Agency in Jane Eyre," in Allegories of ~mpire: The Figure of Woman in the Colonial Text (Minneapolis: U of Minnesota Press, 1993).

2. The Sick Young Girl/ La jeune FiDe malade, with dictee The Poor Girl I La Pauvre FiDe (CB) TEXTUAL NOTES (DEVOIR)

My translation is indebted to Jean P. Inebit's ("Four Essays," 98-99). 10-11, 15. Possible allusion to the song from Cymbelline 2.3: "Hark! hark! the lark at heaven's gate sings, I And Phoebus 'gins arise, I His steeds to water at those springs I On chaliced flowers that lies ...." 29-30. H's marginal comment refers to a poem, "La jeune captive," by Andre Chenier (1762-94). For more on the analogies, see Comments. 32. Luke 8.41-42 and 8.49-56. EDITORIAL NOTES (DEVOIR)

2. La jeune Fille in CB's double-line print. 3. The word malade smaller and single-line but larger than devoir script. 5. The word pour w.u. ?; Heger's m' runs diagonally down to CB's line. 9. H's circumflex on bdti. 10. Illegible H addition crossed out above line. 14. H's accents deploie. His figure in margin. 18. Archaic firsts in tendresse. 23. H's period; some kind of slash above puis. 24. The phrase Ia vie de w.u.? 28. A faint erasure and the formation of etaient suggest that CB started to write another form of etre.

Notes to Pages 1~14

391

33. CB's sis under the z of exaucez (she forgot to change ton). 36. H writes and crosses out something over mais. 37. CB's final words, dans ses regards, are centered on the last line in MS. TEXTUAL NOTES (DICTEE)

This is the first dictee in CB's notebook (BPM, Bonnell115).1ts unidentified author is Alexandre Soumet (1788-1845). The last verse that appears in CB 's transcript does not appear in any published edition I have seen, including the anthology that Heger gave CB, and differs from the others metrically. Heger may have made the addition (he certainly altered other published texts), but there is no proof that he did so. EDITORIAL NOTES (DICTEE)

1. Title large, in CB 's devoir script. 20. The little cross indicates a missing line (Je ne partage . .. ) added below (line 26). 25. Elongated firsts in caresses. 26. Added line in CB's rough-draft script. 46. Traces of revision around mourait (to correct tense?). COMMENTS

1. Lets., 283--84. 2. Soumet (1788-1845) wrote Clytemnestre, SaUl, Jeanne d'Arc, Elizabeth de France, and other plays. When he was in Paris between 1825 and 1829, Heger may have seen Soumet's tragedies. 3. Stone, 1131. 4. Several forms of circumstantial evidence suggest this possibility: CB's allusion here to "La Jeune Captive"; Heger's reference to Delavigne's "Joan of Arc" in his conversation with Gaskell; the appearance of several such poems-Chenier's, Soumet's, and Guttinguer's "L'Enfant malade"in a book Heger later gave to CB and probably used himself as a source, Rabion's Fleurs de Ia Poesie Franfaise; and Heger's practice of "synthetical teaching," reading several texts that had a common theme or topic in order to compare and contrast them. Heger's taste for such poetry is also suggested by the French translation CB made the following year of Schiller's "Des Miidchens Klage"; see CB Poems, 365 and 490. 5. "Quai que l'heure presente ait de trouble et d'ennui, I Je ne veux point mourir encore" (lines 5-6, translation in Robertson, 6). Chenier's captive, a victim of the French Revolution, also speaks of waking at dawn, although "From peaceful sleep I Peaceful [she] wake[s]" (Robertson, 19-20). Heger may have read both lyrics to his students, pointing out comparisons and contrasts. He used this method with other texts; see Comments on devoirs 10 and 11. 6. Luke 8.41-42,49-56. 7. Quoted in Textual Notes (lines 10-11, 15). In 1826 Schubert set the song to music for the piano, so the Brontes could have heard as well as read it. The English composer Thomas Chilcot (d. 1766) also set the song to music, for the harpsichord.

392

Notes to Pages 15-21

8. "J'ai les ailes de !'esperance: I Echappee aux reseaux de l'oiseleur cruel, I Plus vive, plus heureuse, aux campagnes du ciel I Philomele chante et s'elance ("La Jeune Captive," lines 15-18, in Delvaille, 362-63; translation in Robertson, 6). 9. Lets. 266. 10. Duthie, Foreign Vision, 26. She also notes that Soumet's isolated heroine anticipates Bronte's fictional protagonists, who are "not only lonely but singularly alone in the world" (26). 11. Lets. 1:260. See also the untitled poem "I gave, at first, Attention close," CB Poems, 333. 12. Millevoye did not write a "Jeune Malade," but he did write a poem about a dying youth that CB greatly admired; see devoir 23, dictee. 13. Shirley, 78 and 106 (chs. 5 and 6, mod. eds.).

3. Evening Prayer in a Camp I La Priere du Soir dans un camp, with

dictee Evening Prayer on Board a Sbip I Priere du Soir abord d'u[n] vaisseau (CB) TEXTUAL NOTES (DEVOIR)

Whatever Heger's comments may suggest about CB's French, her vocabulary is varied and generally well used, and her style is literary rather than oral, which suggests that she already has some conception of good style. According to my Belgian assistant, most French speakers would find her style acceptable, though rough as an imitation of Chateaubriand. 12. "ruby": a word CB characteristically uses to describe a sunset. Compare "We wove a web in childhood" (CB Poems, 165): "The light of an Italian sky I Where clouds of sunset lingering lie I Is not more ruby red." 16-17. Heger's vertical lines appear to strike out the phrase "and it seemed to me to attest to the intluence of religion," perhaps because CB interrupts an objective description to give her opinion. But she does it to imitate Chateaubriand. 18. "banks of the Nile" could be an echo from the juvenilia; the children's African kingdom included the Nile. 19. Abercrombie: Sir Ralph Abercromby led a campaign against the French in Alexandria in 1801, backed by two troops of Highlanders; see Comments. 23F. Again, Heger may be curbing CB's subjectivity in replacing "de notre Seigneur" ("of our Lord") with the more impersonal "du Seigneur" ("of the Lord"). But "la priere du Seigneur" is also a technically correct phrase for the Lord's Prayer. 33. Ishmael: Abraham's son by Hagar; see also Comments, n. 17. 39. Golgotha: site of the crucifixion; see also Comments, n.16. EDITORIAL NOTES (DEVOIR)

MS corrected in pen and pencil. 2. La Priere du Soir in CB's double-line print.

Notes to Pages 21-26

393

3. The phrase dans un camp in single-line version of double-line print, smaller than devoir script. 4. H's accent (ink) on desert; his comma (ink) after chaleur; apeine (ink) is in left margin in MS, directly preceding alors. 5. The word longue w.u. in pencil and struck out diagonally in ink. 6. H's arching line in ink surrounds bande, w.u. in pencil. 8. The Jetter e d.u. in pencil;presageaitw.u. in pencil. 9. The word et crossed out in ink. 11. Underlining in ink. 12. Crossout in ink. 13. H's accent on etait and desert in pencil. 15. The u of peut underlined three times in pencil. 16. Vertical line begins at et and runs down to end of influence in the next line. 17. Vertical line through religion runs down through temple in the next line. 18. The words loin des w.u. in pencil. 19. Triple line under ait in pencil. 23. H's accent on devotion, and his comma after qui in ink. 24. H's comma in ink after etranger. 25. H's comma in ink after chretien. 27-28. The phrase symbole . .. adorateurs w.u. in pencil; revision above line in ink with indecipherable pencil beneath. 30. The ait added to change extends below the line; strikeout of avait in ink. 32. H's payens(?) under his mobiles in pencil. 36. The letter y underlined three times in pencil; other corrections in ink. 39. Probably H's dash in ink. 40. H's comments in ink over illegible pencil; H's et ce above line, then CB 's que, followed by H's faint je in pencil and ne peux in ink above; H > peindre and continues to next line. Carets added to aid comprehension. TEXTUAL NOTES (DICTEE)

Heger dictated two paragraphs from La Genie du Christianisme, vol. 1, part 1, book 5, chapter 12. CB's notebook (BPM, Bonnelll15) contains two copies of the dictee (the second and the fifth entries). The second entry has been lightly corrected and ends with paragraph two; the fifth is uncorrected and complete. On the variations from the published versions, see the Editorial Notes to the dictee. EDITORIAL NOTES (DICTEE)

To determine the extent of Heger's alterations, I checked the dictee against four versions that would have been available in Brussels: the first edition, Genie du Christianisme (Paris: Migneret, 1802), 1:225-26; Genie du Christianisme; ou, Beautes de Ia religion Chretienne, 2d ed. (Paris: Migneret, 1803), 1:214-15; Genie du Christianisme; ou, Beautes de Ia religion Chretienne (Lyon: Balanche, 1804), 2:95-97; and Oeuvres completes de Chateaubriand, vol. 11, Genie du Christianisme, Tome I (Paris: Ladvocat, 1826), 255-56. There are some variations among them, but much larger variations between the published versions as a group and the dictee. To indicate the extent of Heger's changes and additions, I have shaded them in the typescript. Note that "pv" means "printed version." 1. Priere du Soir in CB's double-line print. 2. The phrase abord d'u vaisseau [sic] in smaller single-line print.

394

Notes to Pages 26-29

3. Sis lowercase in all pvs. 4. The phrase vagues etincelantes isflots in all pvs. 5. All pvs read navire, au milieu. 6. No paragraph and le balancement is plural in all pvs. 7-8. Quelques nuages directly follows horizon in all pvs. 10. All pvs read vers le. 11. All pvs read brillante instead of chargee. 12. All pvs reads pilier. 14. Sentence ends with a period in all pvs. 16-17. All pvs read d'un voix rauque leur simple cantique, and Notre-Dame-deBon-Secours is in italics, capped as here but variously hyphenated. 19-21. The words ocean, mere, and douleur u.c. in all pvs. 22. No paragraph in all pvs, which omit the first part of the line, beginning La conscience. 23./nfini l.c. and nos (forces) in all pvs. 24. In two editions endormies is muettes; all pvs then go to Ia or La nuit. 28. The word priere is plural in all pvs. 30. All pvs read dans'l'orient. 31. Early pvs read aIa faible voix; 1826 ed. reads aIa voix. 32. All pvs read sentir. COMMENTS

1. "[D]e toutes les religions qui ont jamais existe Ia religion chretienne est Ia plus poetique, Ia plus humaine, Ia plus favorable aIa liberte, aux arts et aux lettres" (Oeuvres completes 11:21). 2. "[D]eux perspectives de Ia nature, l'une marine et l'autre terrestre" (Oeuvres completes 11:252). 3. The dictee covers paragraphs 6-7 of part I, book 5, chapter 12. 4. See the Editorial Notes on the dictee for more detailed comparisons. 5. P. Brontt!, 363. I have reproduced the spelling but not the spacing. For Branwell's other references to Chateaubriand, see ibid., pp. 15, 17, 19, 25, 26,and364. 6. The 1812 edition of an English translation of Chateaubriand's Travels in Greece, Palestine, Egypt, and Barbary is item 1,273 of the catalog of books contained in the library of Ponden House sold at auction by William Weatherhead (Keighley), Saturday, November 4, 1899. On the Brontt!s' use of the Ponden House library, see Gerin, Branwell Bronte, 42-44. 7. On the BronU!s' use of Blackwood's, see Gerin, Branwell Bronte, 28-29. 8. [Archibald Alison], "Chateaubriand. No. I. Itineraire," Blackwood's 31 (March 1832): 553-65; and "Chateaubriand. No. II. Genie de Christianisme," Blackwood's 32 (August 1832): 217-33. 9. See her May 1942letter to Ellen Nussey, Chronology, or Lets. 284-85. 10. "[L]es ruines nous montrent Ia fragilite de !'existence humaine, nous enseignent Ia precarite des nations, nous revelent Ia fuit irremediable du temps" (Favre, 9).

Notes to Pages 29-34

395

11. For example, "Dieu meme est le grand secret de Ia nature; Ia divinite etait voilee en Egypte, et le sphinx s'asseyait sur le seuil de ses temples" (Oeuvres completes 11:30; "God himself is the great secret of nature; divinity was veiled in Egypt and the sphinx sat at the threshold of its temples"). 12. "If any lesson is taught by [a tomb], why should we complain that a king resolved to render that lesson perpetual? Majestic monuments constitute an essential part of the glory of every human society. Unless we maintain that it is a matter of indifference whether a nation leaves behind it a name or no name in history, we cannot condemn those structures which extend the memory of a people beyond its own existence, and make it contemporary with the future generations that fix their residence in its forsaken fields" (Chateaubriand, Travels, 207). 13. Branwell's alter ego, Young Soult, is allegedly the son of Marshall Soult, who led the French against the duke of Wellington. Soult also led the French against John Moore (1771-1809), commander of the English forces before Wellington and another favorite of Branwell's. Moore had been Abercromby's protege; in the campaign that CB alludes to here, he was in charge of a division. 14. CBEW2.2:196. 15. See Fortescue, 149-54; and DNB 1:46. 16. Golgotha, literally the place of a skull, is the site where Jesus was crucified. See Matt. 27.33, Mark 15.22, John 19.17-18. 17. See Gen.16, 21.8-21,25.12-18. 18. Villette, 36.611. 4. TheNest/LeNid(CB) TEXTUAL NOTES

34-35 (37). On the possible connection of these lines to Chateaubriand's Genie, see Comments. The idea of nature as a volume goes back further and was common in the eighteenth century. 39 (41}. In making "cloud" plural and changing "the" to "a," Heger generalizes CB's reference to Moses' encounters with God; see also her devoir "The Death of Moses" (68-70). 41 (43). Heger questions "traces" because in French it then had the sense of an animal's traces or tracks. 44 (46). I have translated bornes as "bounds" because that is the word most commonly used with "seas" in this context in the King James Bible. CB uses the word bourn in Jane Eyre, but in the singular, and to connote "destination." EDITORIAL NOTES (CORRECTED VERSION)

Heger has corrected this manuscript in pencil and in ink, sometimes retracing the pencil with ink. 2. Le Nid in CB's double-line print. 3. The r of certaine has something under it; corrected by CB.

396

Notes to Pages 34-42

5. The word premiere is uncorrected by Hand may end with a minuscules. 8. H's empourprer > something illegible in pencil. 9. Tear in page after bourgeon abridges the s. 12. The words dont il crossed out in pencil, w.u. in ink. H > the first e in guetter with his own e. 13. H's hyphen in vert-tendre. 15. H corrects the tin entrevit on line in ink and above line in pencil; the e of pures is crossed out twice. 16. H pencils agita ses ailes and then> ses ailes with agita in ink. 17. H's colons. 18. Diagonals in pencil, underlining in ink; H >penciled words in ink. 20. H's colon and exclamation point. 21. H's l above line> his c, changing this to the. 22. H's comma. 24. After craintive H inserts two dots diagonally before CB's period. 26. The s of des struck out twice; aIa(?) may> Ia; toutes >de, striking it out incorrectly. 29. H'scolon. 30. H's colon; etroite in ink and pencil. 32. The word de crossed out in pencil, underlined and replaced in ink. 33. The es of cesse d.u.; H's accent in ink; his additional sand vertical line in pencil; he> CB's comma with a colon. 37. The underline of li in rempli and vertical line in pencil. 38. Page is tom; word missing is almost certainly volume. 41. H converts CB's comma to a semicolon. 42. H's semicolon and (second) comma. 43. H's accent on delicats. 44. H corrects accent of Hebreux. 46. H's period and vertical line in pencil. COMMENTS

l.JE, 87 (end ch. 8, mod eds.). Jane has just been "allowed to commence French and drawing" at Lowood. Alexander links her naive vision of success to CB's own "illusory delight [in] her early artistic productions" (Alexander and Sellars, 58). 2. "Existence de dieu prouvee par les merveilles de Ia nature" (Oeuvres completes, vol. 11, bk. 5). 3. Lets., 284-85. 4. Dessner, 214. 5. "Une admirable Providence se fait remarquer dans les nids des oiseaux. On ne peut contempler, sans etre attendri, cette bonte divine qui donne l'industrie au foible, et Ia prevoyance a!'insouciant" (Oeuvres completes 11:214). The English translation, by Archibald Alison, is from Blackwood's 32 (August 1832): 229. 6. "Le temps a ronge les fastes des rois de Memphis, sur leurs pyramides funebres; et il n'a pu effacer une seule lettre de l'histoire que l'ibis egyptien porte gravee sur Ia coquille de son oeuf' (Oeuvres completes 11:217). (Chateaubriand uses the word fastes, here and elsewhere, to denote ancient

Notes to Pages 37-46

397

registers or annals.) In Villette, Lucy Snowe sees in the park, at the festival, "the image of a white ibis, fixed on a column ... an avenue, at the close of which was couched a sphynx ... " (38.656).

5. The Immensity of God I L'Immensite de Dieu (CB) TEXTUAL NOTES

Neither the date nor CB's customary signature appears on this devoir, which was taken from a notebook and rebound (see Comments, n. 1). The - absence of comments and the number of errors further suggest that she did not tum in this copy. But though her French is far from perfect, she has evidently studied and thought about style. 8. "luminaries" is a word that CB uses in the juvenilia. See, for instance, "A Leaf from an Unopened Volume," CBEW2.1:328. 10--11. Possibly a reference to Paradise Lost, 4.605-9: ... now glow'd the Firmament With living Saphirs: Hesperus that led The starrie Host, rode brightest, till the Moon Rising in clouded Majestie, at length Apparent Queen unvaild her peerless light, And o're the dark her Silver Mantle threw. 17-19. A very close paraphrase ofPss. 8.3-4. 37. Christiaan Huygens (1629-95): Dutch astronomer, physicist, and mathematician; originator of the theory of light waves. EDITORIAL NOTES

Paragraphs have not been indented. In manuscript, the breaks are defined by spaces between the conclusion of a sentence and the next line.

1. L'lmmensite de Dieu in larger roman print with elaborate capitals. 18. CB started to write the masculine plural agences, then amended it to the feminine plural. 30. CB seems to have changed telle to toute. 34. CB deletes the words with a waved line; the last words deleted are illegible. COMMENTS

l.JE, 414 (ch. 24, mod. eds.). 2. Thomas J. Wise formerly owned and probably cut up the notebook; see Preface, n. 3. This devoir is now bound with a translation of "Coronach" that Neufeldt thinks was probably done in 1843 (CB Poems, 490). The allusion to Psalm 8 may also hint at a later date, since after EB returned to Haworth, CB mailed her a copy of Les Psaumes de David mis en vers fran~ais, dated "Juillet 3" on the flyleaf; see Bemelmans, 294-95. On the other hand, the devoir's mood is so optimistic and the text so responsive to Heger's advice that it seems more like the texts from her first spring. Its brevity too suggests the earlier date. 3. "The Infinite in the Heavens," lines 10, 65, 140, 148, 151. I quote

398

Notes to Pages 46-52

longer extracts in French to suggest their style and tenor: Je m'assieds en silence, et laisse rna pensee Flotter comme une mer oil Ia lune est bercee. Mais dans Ia voftte meme oil s'elevent mes yeux, Que de mondes nouveaux, que de soleils sans nombre ... Chaque tache de lait qui blanchit l'horizon, Chaque teinte du ciel qui n'a pas meme un nom, Sont autant de soleils, rois d'autant de systemes, Qui, de seconds soleils se couronnant eux-memes, Guident, en gravitant dans ces immensites, Cent planetes brftlant de leurs feux empruntes ... Atome, il se mesure al'infini des cieux, Et que, de ta grandeur soup~onnant le prodige, Son regard s'eblouit, et qu'il se dit: Que suis-je? Oh! que suis-je Seigneur! ... ("L'Infini dans les cieux," lines 9-10, 64--65, 135-:W, 148-51, Harmonies, 107-12). 4. "Je con~us ... Ia pensee d'ecrire au hasard ... quelques cantiques modemes, comme ceux que David avait ecrit avec ses larmes" (from Lamartine's comments on his first Harmony, "Invocation," in the subscribers' edition to his Works [1849-1850]; quoted in Benichou, Le Sacre de l'ecrivain, 188). 5. The description in Milton that matches hers most closely is from Paradise Lost, 4.605-9: " ... now glow' d the Firmament I With living Saphirs: Hesperus that led I The starrie Host, rode brightest, till the Moon I Rising in clouded Majestie, at length I Apparent Queen unvaild her peerless light, I And o're the dark her Silver Mantle threw." Chateaubriand makes anumber of allusions to Milton in The Genius of Christianity, and Heger could have cited some in class. But CB had been reading and memorizing Milton since her childhood; a copy of Paradise Lost (Edinburgh: Robertson and Gillies, 1797) with her signature is in the library at Haworth. 6. See the Textual Notes for line 37. 7. One of CB's exercise books (BPM, Bonnell119) bears the title "Cahier d' Arithmetique"; CB lists her professor as Heger. See Alexander, Bibliography, 185. 8. "Quand on pense que le telescope d'Herschell a compte deja plus de cinq millions d'etoiles; que chacune de ces etoiles est un monde plus grand et plus important que ce globe de Ia terre; que ces cinq millions de mondes ne sont que les bords de cette creation; que, si nous parvenions sur le plus eloigne, nous apercevrions de Ia d'autres abimes d'espace infini combles d'autres mondes incalculables, et que ce voyage durerait des myriades de

Notes to Pages 52-53

399

siecles, sans que nous pussions atteindre jamais les limites entre le neant et Dieu ... " (Harmonies, 115). 9. "Et je m'estime moins qu'un de ces grains de sable; I Car ce sable roule par les flots inconstants, I S'il a moins d'etendue, belas! a plus de temps I II remplira toujours son vide dans l'espace ... ("And I count myself less than one of those grains of sand; I Because if that sand rolled by the inconstant waves I Has less extent, alas! it has more time, I It will always fill its gap in space ..."; "L'Infini dans les cieux," lines 155-58, Harmonies, 112; see also line 130). 10. "C'est une souffle affaibli des bardes d'Isra~l. I Un ~cho dans moo sein" (from "Premiere harmonie. Invocation," Oeuvres, 102). Chateaubriand's Genius urges poets to consult the Old Testament as well as the New. 11. See Shirley, 546 (ch. 27, mod. eds.). 12. "... Un golfe de Ia mer, d'iles entrecoupe, I Des blancs reflets du ciel par Ia lune frappe, I Comme un vaste miroir brise sur Ia poussiere, I Reflechit dans l'obscur des fragments de lumiere I (... A gulf ofthe sea, flecked with isles, I White reflections of the sky struck by the moon, I As a vast mirror shattered in the dust I Reflects in darkness fragments of light"; "L'Infini dans les cieux," lines 35-38, Harmonies, 108). In Shirley, CB writes, "All its lights and tints looked like the 'reflets' of white, or violet, or pale green gems" (644 [ch. 32, mod. eds.]). 13. On August 15, 1843, before his Prize Day speech. 14. "Ainsi chaque pas, dans Ia voie scientifique, est un pas vers Dieu; ainsi plus on remonte le grand fleuve de Ia science, mieux on voit que Ia source en est au ciel" ("Discours" of 1834, reprinted in Chadwick, "A Gift," 856).

6. The Cat I Le Chat (EB), with two fragments, Plea for Cats I Plaidoyer pour les chats and The 1\vo Dogs I Les deux chiens (CB) TEXTUAL NOTES ("THE CAT")

My translation is indebted to Lorine White Nagel's (Five Essays, 9-10; rpt., "Three Essays," 338-39). 3. The Brontes apparently had a cat at this time. When it died on March 4, 1844, CB wrote, "Emily is sorry" (Lets., 344). 23 (24). Timon: legendary misanthrope of Athens (5th cent. B.c.) and the subject of Shakespeare's Timon ofAthens. 24-25 (25-26). In CB's The Professor, Frances Evans Henri comments on the school's "Romish" inhabitants: "they all think it lawful to tell lies, they all call it politeness to profess friendship where they feel hatred" (17.145). 38-39 (40-42). Compare Nellie Dean's description of Edgar Linton in Wuthering Heights: "The soft thing ... possessed the power to depart, as

400

Notes to Pages 53-57

much as a cat possesses the power to leave a mouse half killed, or a bird half eaten-" (89 [ch. 8, mod. eds.]). 47-48 (50-51). "the great ancestor": Adam. EDITORIAL NOTES ("THE CAT")

EB rules a double-lined left margin but does not underline her name and the date. 2. Le Chat is in EB's normal devoir hand but larger and to the left of center. The double underline is also left of center, starting at the end of Le and continuing half an inch beyond Chat. 8. The ph of physiques may > something illegible. 23. The word duvet seems to have been chevet (partly erased). 38. The word sang/ant looks like sangtant because EB has crossed the l, probably by mistake. 47-52. The text becomes increasingly contracted as EB approaches the bottom of the page. The last two lines are crammed below the final line that she ruled, and Paradis barely fits. EDITORIAL NOTES (FRAGMENTS)

These excerpts are from pp. 8-10 of a manuscript entitled Devoir. Both titles are in CB's normal devoir hand. 16. CB changes I.e. p to capital in Pataud. 17. CB's r > a z she erases in detailler. COMMENTS

1. EB's word choice in this devoir provides some circumstantial support for CB's claim. As my Belgian assistant, Sabine Mourlon-Beernaert, points out, "elle est bornee" (11), "il est venu about" (23-24), "A peu pres" (31), "assurement" (51), and other expressions are characteristic of oral discourse, rather than literary language. 2. The entries are consecutive and appear on pp. 8-10 of a notebook in the Brotherton Collection. 3. See the matiere for devoirs 21 and 22 and the Comments on devoirs 7 and 8. Also compare William Crimsworth's statement: "One day, I gave as a devoir [a] trite little anecdote ... to be related with amplifications" (The Professor, 16.132). 4. As Gaskell says, "the fierce, wild intractability of its nature was what often recommended [an animal] to Emily" (12.268). See that section also for descriptions of EB 's conduct with Keeper and for connections to Shirley. 5. The Professor, 12.103. "[E]spieglerie" ("The 1\vo Dogs," line 24) also reemerges in that novel, where Pelet refers to one of Crimsworth's difficult students as "une jolie espiegle" (11.95). 6. Hewish, 63. 7. Both Branwell sisters had converted to the Church of England but, like Patrick, they remained well disposed to Wesleyan Methodists. On the importance of Wesleyan and other Evangelical beliefs to EB 's writings, see Miller, ch. 4, and the Introduction to this volume, lxi. As Adrian Desmond

Notes to Pages 57-65

401

points out, ideas about animal creation and the fall had important implications for antivivisectionists and for the medical schools of the early nineteenth century (The Politics of Evolution [Chicago: U of Chicago P, 1989], 183-84). 8. Suggested by Hewish, 63. 9. BPM, Bonnelll15, sixteenth entry. 10. Buffon, Natural History 4:49-51.

7/8. The Siege of Oudenarde I Le Siege d'Oudenarde (CB and EB versions) EDITORIAL NOTES (DEVOIR

7)

2. Title in same script as body of text. 10. EB has an acute accent onfideles but also seems to have tried to correct it. 23. EB starts to write something other than toumait, converts it. 26. EB starts to write recute, converts to reculait. 29. The g of grands is struck out diagonally, the rest of the word horizontally. EDITORIAL NOTES (DEVOIR

8)

CB strikes out words with a horizontal line or with tidy little diagonals through each letter; these last sometimes resemble waves when a word or phrase runs on. The manuscript revisions are unusually heavy, suggesting that this may be a preliminary copy from which she prepared a finished version for Heger. 2. Title same size and script as body of text. 3. The first de is lightly crossed out in the MS, but the lines are long and smeared, as if erased; the word should not be deleted. 9. Something indecipherable under the ve of brave. 10. CB seems to have ended tous with an s, changed it to at, and then struck the t and restored the s. 24. L > I in Lalaing; second I seems altered too. 25. CB starts to write le, shifts to I' before avertit. 39. Accent on envoyerent looks more acute than grave, but CB obviously meant the latter. 42. CB starts to write Lalaig, converts g to n and adds a g. COMMENTS

1. They are listed in Rosenbaum and White but not in Alexander's bibliography, and the Friends Library at Swarthmore could only report that they were part of the Jenkins Collection. My research so far reveals no tie between that Jenkins and Evan Jenkins, the British chaplain in Brussels whose wife first wrote the Brontes about the Pensionnat Heger. 2. The schedule, now in the possession of Fran~ois Fierens, reads as follows: "Histoire I Histoire sainte.-Quelques notices sur les grands hommes de l'antiquite et sur ceux qui ont illustre la Belgique." 3. As the Biographie Nationale observes, "In that epoch of incessant warfare, Simon de Lalaing had ample means to satisfy the bellicose tastes of a knight-at-arms. He traversed the history of his era, fighting almost everywhere" (11:127).

402

Notes to Pages 65-77

4. Barante, 92; the Biographie Nationale cites twenty lancers and two hundred archers. 5. On its importance, see Hayden White in Hollier, 635-36. 6. Barante, 93. 7. This episode is detailed in Oeuvres de George Chastellain publiees par ... Lettenhove: Chronique 1430-1431,1452-1453 (Brussels: Heussner, 1863), 2:231-2, which reproduces a much earlier chronicle. 8. "Le sire de Lalaing avait laisse en Hainaut deux jeunes enfants. Les Gantois chercherent deux enfants de meme taille et a peu pres de meme apparence, les amenerent devant le rempart, et crierent de loin au capitaine eta sa femme, qui etait la apportant des pierres sur la muraille, que dans une course en Hainaut ils venaient de saisir leurs enfants, et qu'ils allaient les mettre a mort si la ville n'etait pas rendue. Ils comptaient sur la tendresse de la mere et la faiblesse du chevalier. Mais le sire de Lalaing fit amener des coulevrines a cet endroit meme, et ordonna qu'on tirat encore plus fort" (Barante, 93). 9. "Perisse tout, hormis l'honneur!" (Biographie Nationale 11:129). 10. Gaskell, 11.230. 11. Sabine Mourlon-Beernaert, typed comments. 12. As Barker points out, though, the allusions differ in their emphasis and stance toward Lalaing's courage. Where CB praises a noble individual, EB contrasts Lalaing with men who "are more often motivated to self-sacrifice by brute, unthinking courage than by a deliberate .denial of the heart's best feelings" (388). 13. Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th ed.

9. Anne Askew: Imitation I Anne Askew: Imitation, with dictee Eudorus /Eudore TEXTUAL NOTES (DEVOIR)

The only sign of intervention in this copy is the added "of Eudorus" (3). But if Heger had read the rest of the manuscript, he would have responded to the frequent grammar errors, so this may be a draft that CB kept in her notebook, turning in a copy now lost. 3. "ofEudorus": an allusion to Chateaubriand's Martyrs and the dictee reproduced after the devoir. 4. Mary Thdor (1516-58), also called "Bloody Mary," reigned as queen of England and Ireland from 1553 to 1558. 8. "in her cell": the real Anne Askew was imprisoned in Newgate. On the day of the episode that CB describes, she was removed to "the sign of the Crown," where three people, including the bishop of London, prevailed on her to recant. When she refused, she was sent to the Tower of London and "let down into a dungeon" to be racked (Foxe 5:547). 10-13. On the imagery, compare CB's poem of February 1,1830, "A wretch in prison by Murry":

Notes to Pages 77-81

403

0! that the glad stars through my dungeon bars

Would shed their lustre clear That the solemn moon would lighten the gloom Which reigns in silence here 0 for some fair light to illume this night With a swift & silver glance Through these grates to play, with a pearly ray And lightly here to dance ... (CB Poems, 27). 13. "the young captive": perhaps an allusion to the poem "La jeune captive," by Andre Chenier (1762-94). Six weeks earlier, Heger had written these words in the margin of CB 's devoir "The Sick Young Girl." 16. Garden of Gethsemane: the place where Jesus went with Peter and the sons of Zebedee the night he was betrayed by Judas. My translation follows Matt. 26.39. See also Mark 14.36 and Luke 22.42. 29 (30). "rack" is underlined because it is in English; presumably, CB did not know the French equivalent. 33-34. Stephen Gardiner (1490?-1555): bishop of Winchester (1530-50) under Henry VIII and Edward VI until he was tried and imprisoned in the Tower; lord chancellor of England (1553-55) under Queen Mary; a noted scholar and advocate of conservative policy through the early Reformation. 50 (49). An allusion to the Crucifixion. See Matt. 27.46 and Mark 15.34-35. 51 (50). Thomas Cranmer (1489-1556): first archbishop of Canterbury in the reformed Church of England (1533-54) and a leading innovator in its reconstruction. He and Gardiner were bitter enemies. After Gardiner's ascension to power under Mary, Cranmer was imprisoned, stripped of his offlees, and forced to defect from Protestantism. He was still condemned to death at the stake. At the burning, he disavowed his false recantation and thrust his right hand (which had signed the documents) into the fire to be consumed (a precedent for Rochester?). 61-62 (61). "beds of roses" is a phrase in Marlowe's "The Passionate Shepherd to His Love" (1599), echoed in Shakespeare's Merry Wives of Windsor (song, 2.1). 62-63 (61-62). Compare this passage from the Bronte children's "Tales ofthe Islanders," June 1,1829: "These cells are dark, vaulted, arched and so far down in the earth that the loudest shreik [sic] could not be heard by any inhabitant of the upper world and in these as well as the dungeons the most unjust torturing might go on without any fear of detection ... " (CBEW1:24). 78-81. CB closely paraphrases Matt. 10.33 and 10.28 but substitutes "Gehenna" for "hell" and "take the life from" for "kill"; with these exceptions, the translation follows the Scripture. 81. Gehenna: biblical Hebrew word for hell.

404

Notes to Pages 80-85

EDITORIAL NOTES (DEVOIR)

I have seen this devoir only in photocopy and may therefore have missed faint signs of changes. 1. Mark resembling oc follows CB 's name. 2. Anne Askew in CB's double-line print. 3./mitation in small single-line print. Heger(?) has added de Eudore. 33. CB seems to have changed ending of entra (from entre?). 36. CB may have punctuation after dit or she may have started to write dis followed by three points. 59. One MS page ends with the word seule, and the next begins with it; the duplication has been edited out. 67. Punctuation after religion is very faint, perhaps not a comma. 70. The article le erased before ciel and l erased before enfer (the apostrophe remains visible in MS). TEXTUAL NOTES (DICTEE)

"Eudorus" is an extract from Les Martyrs, the Christian epic that Chateaubriand published in 1809. (The English version printed here is from The Martyrs, translated by 0. W. Wight; it concludes chapter 22.) It is set in the reigns of Diocletian (284-305) and his son-in-law Galerius (305-11), the era of the final conflict between Christianity and Roman paganism. Its hero is Eudorus, a Greco-Roman warrior from a Christian family, who has lapsed from the faith, gone through years of adventuring, and returned to the fold with quenchless fervor. By chance, he encounters the beautiful and cultured Cymodoce, who is lost. She serves as priestess in the temple of her father, Demodocus, the last of Homer's descendants (Demodocus had put her there to protect her from Hierocles, a Sophist, the powerful proconsul of Achaia, and Eudorus's inveterate enemy). Predictably, the priestess becomes a Christian convert and Eudorus's fiancee. The epic ends with the proclamation of Christianity as the faith of the Empire, but not before the martyred pair are clawed to death by tigers, after marrying on their knees in the arena. The critics did not treat Les Martyrs kindly. (Sainte-Beuve preferred the story of Eudorus's checkered past, which occupies seven of the twenty-four chapters, to anything about his present virtues.) They pounced on Chateaubriand's anachronisms, pointed out errors in his facts, and lambasted his theology. Nonetheless, the book went through numerous editions. When Wight did his translation in 1859, revising an incomplete translation of 1812, he claimed that it was still read extensively. EDITORIAL NOTE (DICTEE)

23. Heger omitted the phrase that follows "Cymodocee aux lieux infllmes!" (22): "Cymodocee dans les bras d'Hierocles!" COMMENTS

1. The documents were published first in Germany by John Bale (1546) and circulated back into England. John Foxe reproduced them with addi-

Notes to Pages 81-90

405

tions in his Actes and Monuments (Basle, 1559; English version, 1563). Further documentation from the Tudor period is provided in John Strype's Ecclesiastical Memorials (1721). 2. Letter to Ellen Nussey, May 1842, reprinted in Lets., 284. 3. As Chateaubriand explains, "J'ai tache de tracer mon tableau de maniere qu'il pfit etre transporte sur Ia toile sans confusion, sans desordre, et sans changer une seule des attitudes: le peuple romain agenoux; les soldats presentant les aigles; les vieux eveques assis, Ia tete couverte d'un pan de leur robe; Eudore de bout, soutenu par les centurions, et laissant tomber Ia coupe au moment oil il prononce ce mot: 'Je suis chretien!'; Ia diversite des costumes; !'agape servie sous le vestibule de Ia prison, etc.: tout cela pourroit peut-etre s'animer sous le pinceau d'un plus grand peintre que moi" ("I have tried to trace my tableau in such a manner that it could be transferred to the canvas without confusion, without disorder, and without changing any of the poses: the Roman populace on its knees; the soldiers presenting the eagles; the old bishops seated, their heads covered with a flap of their robes; Eudorus standing, held up by the centurians, and letting the cup fall the moment he pronounces the phrase, 'I am a Christian!'; the diversity of the costumes; the agape served within the vestibule of the prison, etc.: all that, perhaps, could take on life through the brush of a greater painter than I"; "Remarques," Les Martyrs, 541-42). 4. Saints Jerome and Augustine live out of their eras, Huns and Goths are similarly moved through time and space, and historical events change location. Chateaubriand freely conceded the anachronisms, arguing that the changes were in the epic's-and the reader's-best interests. See his preface to Les Martyrs (The Martyrs, xxvi-xxviii); his "Accueil de Ia critique," Oeuvres romanesques, 27; and the Textual Notes on devoir 9, dictee. 5. See Mavor, 20.2:52-53. He spells the name "Ascue," which suggests that he was not CB's source. 6. Lets., 130. 7. On the complexities of Askew's responses, see Lon off, "Charlotte Bronte's Belgian Essays," 402. 8. Foxe 5:551. 9. Foxe does not mention the ballad. It is quoted in Writings of Edward the Sixth . .. Anne Askew. .. , vol. 3 of the British Reformers series (London: Religious Tract Society, 1831), 33-35. 10. Foxe 5:541. 11. See The Novel and the Police (Berkeley: U of California Press, 1988), 168. Miller cites Gilbert and Gubar as the critics who drew attention to this "historical configuration" (in their Madwoman in the Attic). 12. See Comments on devoir 2. The image of the moon seen through bars could echo Chateaubriand's description of the sunset. See devoir 3, dictee, lines 3-5. 13. For examples of Askew's biblical rejoinders, see Foxe 5:540-41.

406

Notes to Pages 90-94

14. Alexander says that she "drew comfort from the stories of early Christians," citing St. John the Divine and St. Stephen (EW, 241-42).

10. Portrait: King Harold before the Battle of Hastings I Portrait: Le Roi Harold avant Ia Bataille de Hastings (EB), Portrait: Harold on the Eve of the Battle of Hastings I Portrait: Harold Ia verne de Ia Bataille de Hastings (H), with dictee Mirabeau on the Tribune I Mirabeau aIa Tribune (CB) TEXTUAL NOTES (EB'S DEVOIR)

Harold (ca. 1022-66) was king of the English when they were defeated by the Normans. Appointed to the kingship by the dying King Edward early in 1066, he inherited a kingdom beset by challengers from two sides. He was able to overcome his brother Tostig, who had formed an alliance with Harold Hardrada of Norway, but William of Normandy and his troops arrived just two days after that victory. On October 14, on a hill about six miles inland from Hastings, Harold met William's attack. He had mustered troops from southern and eastern England, primarily infantry and special guards. His men repelled repeated assaults throughout the day, but at nightfall, Harold was mortally wounded. His death on the field marked the beginning of the Norman Conquest. The battle and its consequences were and are familiar to all English schoolchildren. See Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th ed. EDITORIAL NOTES (EB'S DEVOIR)

See Comments on the appearance and condition of this four-page manuscript. Because the writing has faded on pp. 1 and 4, it cannot always be deciphered. Heger's corrections are in pen and in pencil. The pen layer seems to be earlier, but precedence may vary and is hard to determine. 2. Portrait in EB's normal script but slightly enlarged. 4. H writes ces hommes twice, in ink and in pencil. Other corrections above line are in pencil and continue below line in ink. I have added a connecting sign for clarity. 7. Thee's are crossed out in pencil, loin added in ink. 8-10. Bin left margin in ink. 11-14. H's underlining in pencil, words in ink except for abaissant in pencil with the t reinforced in ink; faint de in pencil, possibly deleted, over EB 's bas; compagne ... quand crossed out in ink. 17. Both cl's in ink; first crossout in ink, second in pencil. 18. The word pdle in ink. 18-19. Underlining in pencil; three vertical lines in ink delete son . .. inebranlable; intrepidite inebranlable may be w.u. 20-21. On one round of revision, H circles -11- ••• de (here bracketed} and corrects the phrase. In the ink layer, he appears to delete it and link Harold to the previous paragraph. All further corrections are in ink. 23. H's corrections are in pencil except crossout of sa and one slash in lui. EB's L > s in La or vice versa; H strikes out the word and presumably the phrase (through car); character before transorme may not be anf

Notes to Pages 94-101

407

24-25. The word vegetant below the line in MS. H's line descends from son, loops under and around tranquille, and ascends above sur un. It and w.u. are in pencil. My caret is added to suggest H's intent, though he may want EB to retain tranquille. The phrase it eut ete is in left margin in MS, preceding un. 26. Crossout in pencil. 27-28. Crossout of le in ink; all underlining in pencil. H adds a line to connect his d'agir with et de; my broken line indicates the link; H's intervening et is redundant. 29. The letters embr underlined in ink and pencil; other corrections pencil. 30-32. All corrections in pencil. H converts EB's comma to semicolon after vices. H's sa and qu 'un > other illegible corrections; couronne is above""· 34. Mais in left margin, preceding EB's new paragraph, which is not indented. 35. The notation tB is in the left margin, slightly below line, in ink. 36. Crossouts are in pencil. 37. H's semicolon> EB's dash; his comma after Harold; crossout running into 38 in pencil. 38-39. Crossouts from les to peuple are in ink. 39-41. H's corrections are originally in ink, then amended in pencil; crossouts and underlining are in pencil. Words I have reproduced in the margin were written in ink and crossed out in pencil above son Createur in the Ms; at the location marked by a bracketed question mark there is a notation similar to an oversized ampersand. 41-47. Corrections are in pencil; there are additional corrections in 45-46, but they are too faint to decipher. 50. H's N > C; que very small. EDITORIAL NOTES (HEGER'S VERSION)

When Heger makes corrections that affect his meaning, I include them in the transcript. He also crosses out and overwrites words, but because his French is not in question, that editing is not noted. TEXTUAL NOTES (DICTEE)

In this dictee, Heger conflates two extracts from Hugo's seven-part essay. The first is from part 3, beginning with sentence 6 of paragraph 2 and continuing to the end of the paragraph. The other is from part 6 (not paragraph 6, as he wrote Gaskell) and runs from paragraph 10 through paragraph 12, sentence 10. The shift, signaled in the text with an asterisk, occurs at the end of line 14. Otherwise Heger remains faithful to the published text, only changing one phrase (see Comments, n. 21) and omitting a Latin phrase, cuncta supercilia moventis, that follows the allusion to Jupiter (45, 44F). CB's dictee is accurate too, aside from punctuation and a few misspelled or misheard words. The placement of her commas suggests where Heger paused and what he emphasized in speaking. In translating the dictee and the French in the comments, I have drawn on but substantially revised an anonymous English translation in Hugo, Things Seen, 348,361--62. EDITORIAL NOTES (DICTEE)

1. Mirabeau is in cs's double-line print. 2. The phrase aIa Tribune is in small single-line print. 9. The word amoncete should be amonceler.

408

Notes to Pages 101-11

18. The word courant comes at the end of a line, and a necessary comma is missing there. 27. The word les should be des. 31. Oh/begins a new paragraph in Hugo's text. 34. In Hugo, La production exterieure. 37. CB starts to write brisque, changes it to brusque. 42. A dot over the first e of chevelure may be a spot on the manuscript or a misspelling (chive lure). 44. After Jupiter, Hugo adds cuncta supercilia moventis. 47. The word moment should be plural. 49. Victor Hugo is in cs's proper-noun print. COMMENTS

1. For details on Harold's brief kingship, see the Textual Notes. 2. "Rosina" (September 1, 1841) alludes to King Julius Brenzaida's death "beneath this palace dome- I True hearts on every side" (EB Poems, 136). See also "Why ask to know the date-the clime," her last surviving poem (184-85). 3. Gaskell, 11.234. 4. "[D]ans rna ler;onje me bomais ace qui conceme Mirabeau orateur, c'est a dire au paragraphe VI.-C'est apres l'analyse de ce marceau, considere surtout du point de vue du fond, de la disposition, de ce qu'on pourrais appeler Ia charpente, qu'ont ete faits les deux portraits ci-joints" (May 22, 1856, letter, John Rylands Library, Manchester; Gaskell's version [11.234] omits the reference to the paragraph). Heger's letter identifies Hugo's essay as a well-known ("fort etendu") article published in 1834 and entitled "Literature et philosophie melees." Actually, "Sur Mirabeau" is one of several articles gathered in that volume. 5. All three manuscripts-"Peter," "Napoleon," and "Harold"-together with Heger's covering letter and a fourth manuscript of "extracts" from CB's letters to him are in a collection of Gaskell's papers at the John Rylands Library. Only "Peter" is in CB's handwriting, on paper that she ruled, with Heger's corrections. The rest are in the same hand (which I take to be Heger's), and they are consistent in paper, ink, and format. 6. Gaskell, 11.238. 7. Possibly he interchanged pen and pencil; the manuscript layering is not fully consistent; see Editorial Notes of this devoir. 8. Gaskell, 11.234. 9.Seen.4. 10. "Sur Mirabeau," pt. 2, 198. David E. Musselwhite first called attention to this passage, which he incorrectly cites as the "set piece" Heger read to the Brontes (99). But Musselwhite did not know about CB's dictee, and since this is paragraph 6 of part 2 (Heger says he drew on paragraph 6), his confusion is understandable. 11. Heger read Carlyle's portrait of Cromwell to the Brontes; it had

Notes to Pages 109-15

409

recently appeared in On Heroes, Hero- Worship, and the Heroic in History. See Gaskell, 11.239 and Comments on devoir 11. 12. "Sur Mirabeau" repeatedly makes the point that Mirabeau died just in time. "His was a sovereign and sublime head. '91 crowned it. '93 would have cut it off" (pt. 3, 203). 13. EB's conception of potentiality resembles Keats's, although there is no proof that she read him. 14. For example, "il avait enfin pu extravaser dans la societe tous ses bouillonnements interieurs si longtemps comprimes dans la famille" ("he had at last been able to pour out into society all the ebullience so long repressed within his family"; pt. 2, 198). 15. Gaskell, 11.233. 16. The Gaskell copy has not been previously published. Dorothy H. Cornish's translation of the Haworth version came out in 1947 (98); it makes no reference to Heger's corrections or to Cornish's own editing choices. In 1971 Gerin published a French version (EB, 267-68). She attempts to include some of the corrections but admits that the manuscript is "in very poor condition" and misreads quite a few lines. 17. Hewish, 66. He does not admire the portrait, which he says "lacks the bite of 'The Cat'" and "shows a stereotyped hero freed from the falsities of the court to face the ultimate reality of death" (ibid.). 18. Spark and Stanford, 63. 19. Musselwhite, 97. 20. See ibid., 97-100. 21. It does not, however, appear in Hugo's essay; Hugo speaks of Ia production exterieure (pt. 6, 211).

11. Portrait: Peter the Hermit I Portrait: Pierre I'Ermite, Imitation: Portrait of Peter the Hermit I Imitation: Portrait de Pierre I'Hermite, with dictee The Capture of Jerusalem by the Crusaders I Prise de Jerusalem par les croises (CB) TEXTUAL NOTES (PORTRAIT)

2-10. On correspondences between this passage and Carlyle's On Heroes, Hero-Worship, and the Heroic in History, see Comments. 6. Alexander (the Great), 356-323 B.c.: Macedonian king who conquered Greece, the Persian Empire, and Egypt. Attila (406?-453): king of the Huns, who invaded Europe. 8. Oliver Cromwell (1599-1658): Calvinist leader of the English Revolution that overthrew Charles II; he became lord protector of the Commonwealth. 9. Robespierre (1758-94): a leader of the French Revolution, eventually guillotined. 16. Picardy: a province of northwestern France; Peter is said to have been born in Amiens, its capital. 18. Saladin: Salah-al-Din Yusufibn-Ayyub (1138?-93), sultan of Egypt

410

Notes to Pages 115-19

and Syria who conquered Jerusalem and was defeated in the Third Crusade. Saracens: common European term for Muslims at the time of the Crusades. 22. Samson: biblical strong man, often alluded to by CB; on his breaking of knots, see Judg.15.9-15. 32F. "comparais": Heger's marginal comment may direct CB to compare the two "ne" constructions marked by the symbol-If. 33-34. "the broad road ...": a paraphrase of Matt. 7.13-14. 47. "imprint of Divinity": when Moses came down from Sinai after receiving the Lord's commandments, "the skin of his face shone." See Exod. 34.29-35. 61 ff. (63). CB seems to be portraying a scene that allegedly occurred on the day before the capture of Jerusalem during the First Crusade, given by Michaud as July 14,1099. 70-75 (71-76). Compare these lines with CB's description of the biblical Holy Land in "The Death ofMoses,"111-19. 81 (83-84). Godfrey of Bouillon (d. 1100): a knight and leader of the First Crusade who became advocate of the Holy Sepulchre after the capture of Jerusalem. Tancred: a knight who led the Normans in the First Crusade and became prince of Galilee after the capture of Jerusalem. 93 (95). "mantle of the prophet Elijah": see 1 Kings 13 and cf. 2 Kings 2.8. 95-97 (96-98). "holy sepulchre": where Jesus was buried. The great aim of the First Crusade was to redeem it and Jerusalem from the "infidels." Silver crescent: symbol of the Muslims. Oriflamme: orange-red flag of the Abbey of St. Denis, used as standard by early French kings. Red Cross: cross of St. George and national emblem of England. 101 (102-3). Moses delivered the Israelites from Egyptian slavery; his successor, Joshua, led them into Canaan, the promised land. EDITORIAL NOTES (PORTRAIT)

The manuscript of this version, now at the British Library, was formerly owned by Thomas J. Wise. (On its provenance, see Comments, n. 2.) Wise notoriously altered Bronte manuscripts, and this one bears signs of tampering; Heger's marks have been erased from the pages wherever they could be gotten at. My assistant and I did what we could to decipher the traces, but some of the fainter signs escaped us. The following words, which have also been erased, appear on the back of the last page, upside down and in another handwriting: "Mons Heger ne fait pas bien de ne pas ceder ases cleves ce qui leur a [ont?) coute tant de travail" ("M. Heger does wrong not to yield to his students what has cost them so much work"}. 2. Portrait in CB's double-line print. 3. Pierre l'Ermite in same style but single-line, followed by a period and a further mark, perhaps a flourish. 4. Before ~tre, CB changes d' to d. 5. CB changes morals to moraux. 6. H's comma after conquerant. 7. Small addition to passe, perhaps the start of a canceled s.

Notes to Pages 119-25

411

8. H's comma after revolutionnaire. 12. Diphthong of coeur very contracted, resembling cour. 17. Above line, H >plural endings of CB's les leurs to make them singular. 18. H converts CB's de les either to de ses or des; see further revision in next "Pierre" draft. 20. The marginal symbol-JI- is to the left of the crossed out words in MS; H's words may have been erased. 24-27. H adds an arcing line in left margin; something above it is erased. 31. The symbol-l/- may signal a construction similar to the one in line 20. 32. The word atteindre is struck out with one diagonal. 35. H's le is in margin, directly preceding casque. 37 ff. Dots and diagonals in the left margin may indicate lines with grammatical errors, but erasure has removed any comments that may have accompanied them. 38. H converts CB's comma to a semicolon. 39. H's above line Ia may> de before rigueur. 42-43. The f of H's fut runs down into CB's etait, as if to delete it. 45. H's accent on Genie; f of H's fit runs down into CB's faisait, as if to delete it. 54. There is an indecipherable notation in left margin; infidelles [sic] may be crossed out rather than underlined. 59. The word petit slopes below the line in the MS. 60. H's comma after enthousiasme. 62. Very faint tr on line in margin preceding une nation. 63-64. H appears to be deleting these lines only, but in fact lines 63-85 and further words drop out of the second draft. 66. The o in occident may be u.c. 72. CB has corrected t of sainte, originally an e. 73. CB 's erased ep precedes ancienne. 76. Jerusalem in CB's proper-noun print; she erases tte following ce. 77. Temple in CB's proper-noun print. 83-84. Godfroi and Tancrede in CB's proper-noun print. 89. CB's strikeout. 91. The word /eves may have an accent on the first e. 95. A letter (p?) before prophete has been erased. EDITORIAL NOTES (IMITATION)

CB incorporates most of the revisions that Heger indicated in her first draft, which she wrote more than five weeks earlier. He seems even more attentive to this version than to the last; he makes more analytic comments in the margins and attends more closely to details.

2./mitation in large double-line, slightly back-sloping letters closer to cursive than print, with a Gothic I. 3. Subtitle in very small letters and in CB's proper-noun print. 4. First comma H's, second CB 's. 6. H's accent on conquerant. 7. H's comma after ouragan. 8. H's comma after quelquefois; his accent on revolutionnaire. 9. Words above line here are in margin in MS, crossing CB's border to precede vices. 11. CB starts to add e to Mahomet and then curtails it; H canceled thee in draft 1. 17. H's accent on inquieter. 18. CB deletes s of des; compare H's correction in draft 1, line 18.

412

Notes to Pages 119-27

26. A comma after arne may be missing because the word runs into the binding. 29. H's accent on avidement. 37. H strikes out CB's et and her above-the-line addition. 47. H adds an apostrophe to create l'apfltre. 49. In ilfallaitCB begins an/after the first i and then converts it to an I. 61. Halters verb tense on exen;ait. 64. H draws a line to connect Ia to multitude in line 65. 65-67. H's diagonals run left and right (I \) in MS to cut the rest of the paragraph. 69. H's semicolon after Elijah; he adds Pierre in the margin, directly preceding lit. 72. H's accent on a. 73. H has a connecting sign, replaced here by a caret. 74. H's dash after soldats; his comma after RlMift. 75. H's line after promis may signal the need for punctuation; CB's crossout of promesse. 76. H's comma. TEXTUAL NOTES (DICTEE)

The extract begins with paragraph 4 of Charlotte's dictee. The earlier paragraphs cover the time of the Christians' entry (3 P.M. on Good Friday) and the terrible carnage the Crusaders inflicted: they massacred the Saracens in the streets of Jerusalem, in their houses, and even in the mosque where they fled for asylum. My translation is revised from W. Robson, History ofthe Crusades 1:227. EDITORIAL NOTES (DICTEE)

CB's dictee varies in a few words from published versions of this passage. The variants, excluding punctuation, are recorded below (pv = printed version). 1-2. Title and subtitle in CB's single-line, proper-noun script. 4. Pv reads s'arr€ter au tableau. 8. The phrase derober aux Sarrasins is derober a Ia recherche des Sarrasins in pv. 11. Pv reads fideles. 12. Pv reads chretiens. 14. The phrase le cenobite pieux is le genereux cenobite in pv. 22. Michaut (sic] in smaller print. COMMENTS

1. In addition to "On the Death of Napoleon," which she reproduces from Heger's copy, she reports seeing "Vision and Death of Moses on Mount Nebo" and "Letter, from a Missionary, Sierra Leone, Africa"; "The Caterpillar" and "The Fall of the Leaves," which she does not mention, are still in the Heger family. 2. After CB's death, the devoirs she brought back went to Arthur Bell Nicholls, her widower. Though Nicholls lent Gaskell a "bundle" of manuscripts, Gaskell's comments make it clear that she was unaware of the June 23 draft. Nicholls later sold what he had to Wise and Clement K. Shorter. Though much of that collection was dispersed, the bookplate inside the folder of this devoir, "Thomas James Wise I His Book," reveals that Wise retained it in his private (Ashley) library.

Notes to Pages 127-34

413

3. Gaskell, 11.234. See also Comments on devoir 10. 4. Gaskell, 11.238--39. She is defining Heger's "synthetical teaching," his method of exposing students to the views of different writers on the same subject, Cromwell in this case. 5. Macdonald, "The Brontes at Brussels," quoting interviews with two former pensionnat students. Madame G. also called CB "sickly looking." Mile C. "recollect[ed] Madame Heger to have been a very pretty woman, and very careful of her personal appearance," whereas "Charlotte Bronte's personal appearance was extremely insignificant and even displeasing; and she dressed badly" (287). 6. "[S]ans fortune et sans renommee" (Michaud, Histoire des croisades, 90); "[il] n'avait d'autre puissance que Ia force de son caractere et de son genie" (ibid., 89). The first volume of Michaud's massive work came out in 1808. By 1841, two years after his death, his History of the Crusades was in its sixth edition. Michaud aimed for scholarly accuracy as well as a lively account of events, and his many footnotes indicate his sources; he was, however, all inclusive rather than discriminating. 7. Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th ed., s.v. "Peter the Hermit." See also Hagenmeyer. 8. See Histoire des Croisades, 89-90 (History ofthe Crusades 1:40-41). 9. Gaskell, 11.243. See also Lucy Snowe's account of such lectures in Villette, 13.162-63. 10. On Martin's influence, see Alexander and Sellars, 20-21. CB may also have seen an illustrated volume of Michaud. 11. News of the lectures was widespread enough to reach John Ruskin in Geneva; on the responses, see Michael K. Goldberg's introduction to On Heroes, xxix, lxii ff. The book itself may also have been stocked in an English bookstore in Brussels. 12. "Sur Mirabeau," 193, 195. 13. "Advice," devoir 4. 14. Gaskell, 11.234. 15. Michaud, Histoire des croisades, 427; The History of the Crusades, 215. 16. The deletion may have been more strongly indicated, but since erasures have been made throughout this manuscript, only these markings are visible. 17. CB Poems, 274.

12113. Letter (Madam) I Lettre (Madame) (EB) and Letter of invitation to a Clergyman I Lettre d'invitation aun Ecdesiastique (CB) EDITORIAL NOTES (DEVOIR I2)

The off-center placement of Lettre and Reponse and their positions in respect to the double lines imitate the spacing of EB's manuscript. I have normalized the paragraph indentations.

414

Notes to Pages 13441

1. A small square of the page (with Emil and the top half of y) has been ripped away; on the reverse side (line 8) the word after une is missing because of the tear. 26. The phrase demon travail added in left margin. EDITORIAL NOTES (DEVOIR

13)

1.1842 is added below date, perhaps later and not by CB. 2. Lettre in CB 's double-line print. 3. The subtitle is printed and much smaller than the title. 17. The letter q after precieux has been erased but remains visible. 20. A second tin tout converted to s. 30. CB has added e (feminine ending) to un. COMMENTS

1. Lets., 300 (298, for the French) and 301 nn. 6, 7; see also Gerin EB,

130-34. 2. J. J. Green, "The Bronte-Wheelwright Friendship," Friends Quarterly Examiner (November 1915), reprinted in Gerin EB, 130. 3. Chitham additionally observes, "The tone of the letter is almost rude, and we must wonder how M. Heger felt about it. He could surely not overlook the unfriendly rebuke given by the music teacher, and nor should we. For pupil, substitute the naive guest, Lockwood; for scornful teacher, substitute Heathcliff ... " (146). 4. She had been invited to attend lectures on Galvanism. Her letter concludes, "so that, everything considered it is perhaps as well that circumstances have deprived us ofthis pleasure" (May 11, 1831, jn Lets., 109-10).

14. Letter (My dear Mama) I Lettre (Ma chere Maman) (CB) TEXTUAL NOTES

My translation often parallels Phyllis Bentley's ("More Bronte Devoirs," 384) because EB's French has such obvious English equivalents that it leaves the translator few options. EDITORIAL NOTES

Some of Heger's underlines wave slightly, but the difference between them and his straight underlining is hard to ascertain and so is not noted, except in line 6. 4. H's trop > his bien. 5. EB has erasure under aie. 11. H's colon after EB's comma. 14. H's comma after jouent. 16. H's comma after nous. 19. H makes EB's comma into a semicolon. 20. H draws a line below and past j'ai ato vous. COMMENTS

1. "If the girl is in quarantine, nineteenth-century experience and literary convention make it likely that she is dying; suppressing her reproaches against the mother, the girl instead identifies with her, with fatal results.... " Homan's reading of this devoir also stresses the speaker's am-

Notes to Pages 141-54

415

bivalence toward the absent mother, the "mixture of yearning andrepressed anger" (150). 2. CB's "Biographical Notice" of 1850 (quoted in the Introduction, xxv-xxvi) makes a point of EB's homesickness. 3. For example, Ratchford assumes that A.G.A. 's infant daughter dies and cites both a poem and an earlier fragment on the theme of "a young girl in prison" (Gondal's Queen, 120-24, 168). 4. Tayler finds different links between this letter and Wuthering Heights: "[T]he dramatic situation-illness in isolation and cure by reunion-is familiar indeed. The first is echoed in Catherine's 'frightful isolation' among the Lin tons ... , the second in the reintegration that Catherine and Heathcliffseek beyond death" (98-99).

15. Filial Love I L'Amour Filial (EB) TEXTUAL NOTES

3. EB invokes the Fifth Commandment, Exod. 20.12 and Deut. 5.16; see also Comments, n. 3. 10-12 (11-13}. Compare Chateaubriand on the instincts of animals: "La poule si timide, par exemple, devient aussi courage use qu 'un aigle quand il faut defendre ses poussins" (Oeuvres completes 11:206; "The timorous hen, for example, becomes as courageous as an eagle when she must defend her chicks"). Heger had read the Brontes other excerpts from this section. 15 (16}. "voice of thunder": a reference to God speaking to Moses on Mount Sinai, which quaked in the storm and was covered with a cloud of fire. 19 (20). EB implicitly reverses the movement of Gen. 1.2-4 from chaos to order and darkness to light. 31-34 (34--36). Perhaps a reversal of Rom. 8.33-34; see Comments. EDITORIAL NOTES

2. Land A of title double-line print. 26. EB starts to write pens at the end of a line, runs out of space, adds e on next

line, then cancels e and rewrites pense above. 28. EB inserts leur and the apostrophe for n'a without canceling the e. 30. The f of infatigable > something indecipherable. 33. The word s'eveillera was originally in the present tense, with ra added, running into the comma. COMMENTS

1. Last stanza of the untitled poem "Shed no tear o'er that tomb," July 26, 1839 (EB Poems, 109}. Chitham was the first to observe the connection between the tone of this poem and the devoir's (147). 2. According to MacDonald, Heger insisted that his students rewrite their devoirs after he had marked them, incorporating "the improvements suggested" ("The Brontes at Brussels," 283). 3. Exod. 20.12. An alternate version appears in Deut. 5.16: "Honour thy father and thy mother, as the Lord thy God hath commanded thee; that thy

416

Notes to Pages 154-61

days may be prolonged, and that it may go well with thee, in the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee." 4. Winnifrith, 37-40. He rejects Gerin's suggestion that their exposure to Calvinist tenets came through Maria Branwell. 5. Calvin, 136. 6. Rom. 8.33-34. 7. See Gen.l.l-4 and 1.26-27. 8. EB Poems, 97-98, lines 15, 22-23, 53. 9. EB Poems, 256.

16. Letter from one brother to another I Lettre d'un frere aun frere (EB) TEXTUAL NOTES

3. I take the English title from Lorine White Nagel's translation (Five Essays, 15; rpt., "Three Essays," 339-40). In other respects, our versions of-

ten differ because she translates Heger's revisions as if they were EB 's words. 22. CB uses the "bark" trope in The Professor: "At that hour my bark hung on the topmost curl of a wave of fate, and I knew not on what shoal the onward rush of the billow might hurl it" (23.213). EDITORIAL NOTES

2. Although H indicates that he will designate errors with a double underline and words to be changed with a wavy underline, his practice does not always correspond to this intention. 7. The word ecoulees may > something illegible. 8. separation w.u.? 9. H's en> his pour. 15-16. A diagonal slash begins after joui and runs down through possesseur; presumably H wanted the phrase to conclude withjoui. 19. H's circumflex in goater. 20. The word cette is below the line in MS, directly beneath Ia. 24. EB started to write se(?) under s'etaient; the us of H's voulus > ais. 27. H's semicolon. 28. EB crosses out a, substituting entre. 29. H's semicolon. 38. EB crosses out naissait and adds nut to change the verb to connut. H seems to be reducing her phrase to me le temoigna par des caresses. 39. H's circumflex in votre. 40-41. I have adjusted the spacing to fit H's phrase above the lines; he has fait taire above Ia place and adds a curved line to show that it belongs before Ia nature. 42. H's semicolon. 43. H's apostrophe; EB's crossout of heureux. 43-46. H's name is horizontal in left margin, facing away from text. 45. H's circumflex in fdcher. 47. The word viens is above the line in the MS because EB ran out of space. COMMENTS

1. "Lines" (EB Poems, 91); dated April28, 1839. Several Gondal poems from this period appear to deal with themes of absence and longing, and of return cut off either by death or criminality. See, for example, the untitled

Notes to Pages 151-72

417

poem of January 12, 1839: "To a silent home thy foot may come I And years may follow of toilsome pain; I But yet I swear by that Burning Tear I The loved shall meet on its hearth again" (EB Poems, 94). 2. WH, 194 (ch.15, mod. eds.). 3. See EW, 42-43. 4. See ibid., ch. 29; and CBEW2.2:150. 5. Alexander outlines the story (EW, 220); it appears in facsimile in Misc. 1:327. 6. Misc. 2:390. 7. EB, Five Essays, 15 n. 8. See EB Poems, 95 and 255-56. 9. Gondal's Queen, 177; EB Poems, 184. These lines come from an untitled Gondal manuscript dated September 14, 1846; see also Ratchford's noteonp.174. 10. EB Poems, 9-ll and 230; see also The Complete Poems of Emily Jane Bronte, 218-19.

17118. The Butterfty I Le Papillon (EB) and The Caterpillar I La Chenille (CB) TEXTUAL NOTES (DEVOIR 17)

My translation is indebted to Lorine White Nagel's (Five Essays, 17-19; rpt., "Three Essays," 340-41). On the mood of this devoir and some of its imagery, compare EB's "A Day Dream" (EB Poems, 17-19; dated March 5, 1844). Several critics have also pointed out that Wuthering Heights ends with a vision of the moths that flutter around the three graves. 37-38. As Romans has noted, EB's image recalls Gen. 3.14-15: "crushing under foot the caterpillar, which she calls a reptile, she bruises the head of the serpent" (143). 43F. voute [sic] azuree: common French Romantic phrase for the sky. 52ff. Gezari compares this conclusion and its rejection of eternal damnation to the convictions EB expresses in two untitled poems of 1840; see EB Poems, 121-24,263. EDITORIAL NOTES (DEVOIR 17)

2. Devoir is on a separate page in special double-line letters. 3. Le Papillon is in regular print. 29. The word recriai extends into the right margin, and je extends beyond the left margin of the next line. 31. The word tourment runs off the page, so EB may have meant to include the finale. 33. The second de was inserted and extends over the line marking the left margin. 48. The words ton and tu verras were respectively votre and vous verriez, which have been erased. 49. The word de ends the page and is repeated on the next page, clearly a mistake.

418

Notes to Pages 172-79

18) My translation is indebted to Phyllis Bentley's ("More Bronte Devoirs," 362-64), though I have kept this version more literal than hers to catch the remaining stiffness in CB's French. TEXTUAL NOTES (DEVOIR

12-13. Compare Pss. 8.5 25-35. The English "it" removes the possible gender implications of CB's parable: Ia chenille, the ugly worm, is feminine; l'insecte and le papillon are masculine. 44-46 (45-48). Possibly a reference to Sir Isaac Newton, who was widely known to have made this comparison; for example, Mary Shelley alludes to it in Frankenstein. Patrick Bronte cites Newton (though not this episode) in his poem "On Halley's Comet in 1835." 60F. Compare "La Mort de Napoleon," first draft, line 36. 63-69. Throughout this passage CB closely follows 1 Cor. 15.42-44, 52, 54. I therefore use the words of the Bible but retain her "animal" (64) instead of the biblical "natural." EDITORIAL NOTES (DEVOIR

18)

2. Devoir is on a cover page in double-line print with a Gothic D. 3. La Chenille is in double-line print. COMMENTS

1. Lets., 289. 2. See devoirs 10111 and 12113. 3. See devoirs 718 and 21122. 4. See Benvenuto, 78; Willson, 22-25; and Miller, ch. 4. 5. From "A Day Dream," EB Poems, 18. 6. "Resolution and Independence" and The Excursion have both been cited in connection with EB's poetry; see EB Poems, 241,257,264, etc. Further English precedents for both devoirs have been suggested-in Shakespeare (Lear}, Keats, Blake, Benjamin Constant, the Methodists James Hervey and John Wesley, and, of course, the King James Bible. See, respectively, Benvenuto, 78-79; Hewish, 66; and Miller, 193. 7. "[I]t is difficult to see how the sudden appearance of the butterfly ... is an adequate answer to the universe of cruelty already evoked, in which pain and beauty exist side by side" (Hewish, 66-67). 8. Like the others on this list, Bernardin de Saint-Pierre sought to prove God's existence through the wonders of nature. He claimed that metamorphosis challenged Locke's theory that there were no innate ideas: at each stage, the insect must have been thinking, for it could not have reacted from experience. See Oeuvres 3:15-16. 9. The System of Natural History . .. Carefully Abridged, trans. coN [sic] (Edinburgh: J. Ruthven, 1800}, 2:87. 10. "U, pres des ruches des abeilles, I Arachne tisse ses merveilles, I Le serpent siffle, et la fourmi I Guide ades conquetes de sables I Ses multi-

Notes to Pages 180-88

419

tudes innombrables I Qu'ecrase un lezard endormi!" ("Neuvieme Harmonie. Suite de Jehovah. Le Chene," Harmonies, 133). 11. Genius, 136; emphasis mine. See also Oeuvres completes 11:185. Duthie was the first to cite the connection between Chateaubriand and these devoirs (Foreign Vision, 215 n. 29). 12. The project of natural theology was to show how creation manifests "the Power, Wisdom, and Goodness of God." These words appear in the notice to all the volumes in the Bridgewater Treatises, the major early Victorian source of instruction on this movement. Naturphilosophie, in Philip F. Rehbock's words, is a "strain of scientific thought deriving from Kantian idealism" (17) that attracted many eighteenth- and nineteenth-century German philosophers. Goethe was its leading proponent in the biological sciences. EB's allusion to an "embryo" (line 46) may reflect a theory of the natural philosophers. For further information and a list of their premises, see Rehbock, 18-19,20-21. 13. Davies also makes the point that EB "accept(ed] none of the brainwashing about Nature's benignity which was her Wordsworthian inheritance" (108). 14. Miller, 164-65. He quotes and comments on a sermon he titles "The Great Deliverance," however, it is given in Wesley's Works as "The General Deliverance." 15. Wesley 2:443-45. 16. Ibid., 446-47. 17. See Winnifrith, ch. 3 passim. Lane notes that this essay, "remote though it may be from the conventional Methodist-tinged Church of England in which she was brought up, nevertheless fits firmly within the Chris-

tian framework" (Purely for Pleasure, 145). A further connection may be Robert Southey, the poet laureate to whom CB wrote for advice about her writing. In 1820 Southey published in two volumes his Life of Wesley; and the Rise and Progress of Methodism. Though it is not on record as a book the BronU!s owned, they may have had access to it elsewhere. 18. "The New Birth," Works 2:192, paraphrasing Eph. 1.18. 19. Homans, 142. This conclusion is part of a reading of "The Butterfly" that differs substantially from mine. 20. A possible exception is her poem "A Day Dream," briefly quoted in the text. There, the speaker's mood is transformed by "little glittering spirits" that sing of mortal suffering as the necessary prelude to "universal joy" (EB Poems, 18-19). 21. As Duthie says, "In style, form and rhythm (this devoir] is much superior to anything she had yet written in French" (Foreign Vision, 29). 22. See his marginal comments on devoirs 11 and 26. 23. See his comments on devoir 4. 24. "Le theme est banal, mais !'expression est riche, souple et poetique" (Wells, 90). He claims that only the "religious tone" ("Ia tonalite religieuse

420

Notes to Pages 188-92

dont elle enveloppe son sujet") gives it away as an essay by a non-native speaker.

19. The Aim of Life I Le But de Ia Vie (CB) EDITORIAL NOTES

1. Underlining conspicuously extends beyond the name and date. 2. The title is in elaborate letters (see fig. 5). 12. The word scintillaient is in the margin preceding les premieres. 33. The word manque almost runs off the end of the page, and no period follows. COMMENTS

1. See the entries in the Chronology for May 29, June 5, August 6, and September 2, 1843. 2. All published sources spell the name "Sarah Ann," but since the child herself added the finale, I have retained it. 3. The Wheelwrights' account of the date differ. Chadwick, who spoke to one of the Misses Wheelwrights (she does not indicate which) says that the parents traveled after Julia Wheelwright's death from typhoid that September (Footsteps, 228--29); according to Frances Wheelwright, however, her parents took a "summer holiday" ("1\vo Brussels School-fellows," 28). Wise and Symington place the trip in May 1843 (BLFC 1:289), but their accounts are often unreliable. Smith reports that they went to the pensionnat "daily throughout the vacation for various lessons" (Lets., 301 n. 7). 4. Because the children all disliked EB, who made the three youngest take piano lessons during recess, CB only started to visit them regularly after EB left Brussels. Sources on the Wheelwrights include J. J. Green, "The Bronte-Wheelwright Friendship," Friends Quarterly Examiner (November 1915); "1\vo Brussels School-fellows," 27-29; Chadwick, Footsteps, 225-29; and Gerin CB, 207. 5. Gaskell, 11.261; and Lets., 334 (without "the"). 6. I am grateful to Sabine Mourlon-Beernaert for alerting me to this point. 7. On its derivation, see Editorial Method. 8. See the Chronology entry for August 15, 1843; he also gave her an anthology, Les Fleurs de Ia poesie franr;aise. 9. In Villette, Lucy refers to the striking of St. Jean Baptiste's clock. See, for instance, 12.153. 10. 5 Novs., 199. 11. All three sisters paced the sitting room as they discussed work in progress; see Gaskell, 2.1:307. Her character Frances Henri also paces (The Professor, 19.167 and 23.214). 12. On the dialogic aspects of this devoir, see Lonoff, "Charlotte Bronte's Belgian Essays" 389-91. 13. Chapone, 54-55. Fraser says that Miss Wooler's "regime of studies" was based on this book (73).

Notes to Pages 192-203

421

20. Human Justice I La Justice humaine (CB) TEXTUAL NOTE

56. Pharisees: members of an ancient Hebrew sect, referred to by Jesus, who were known for hypocritical self-righteousness and arrogance in their adherence to religious law; also, people who resemble them. EDITORIAL NOTES

On the layers of correction in the manuscript, see the Comments. 2. The title is in CB's double-line script. 4. CB crosses out gens, presumably after H underlines it. 5. CB crosses out est mete, presumably after H underlines it. 6. CB's correction, ions, runs diagonally below line; H's accent on tegislateurs; CB crosses out leurs, which has w.u. and double line below. 7. CB crosses out dictums, presumably after H underlines it. 9-10. H's commas. 10-11. CB crosses out Ia chose ... administre. 12. CB crosses out Prenons . .. un, changes d'un homme accuse to the plural, then crosses out the whole phrase. 13. CB crosses out Ia conviction, corrects accent on second e of precede. 14. CB crosses out imposition. 17. Three lines under avec; H's accent on miserables; obj(?) in pencil in left margin. 1~19. H's underlining in pencil overwritten with ink; penciled line is double, ink w.u. is single, with a dip under vite; H's accent on developper; objan in ink in left margin. 22. The word des underlined four times; possibly H suggests that CB reverse vicieux and malheureux. The ain left margin seems to precede the indecipherable words below it. 23. Above the line, CB's dot may represent a comma; H strikes out pas. 26-27. W.u. under les pieges and de Ia loi connected by a fainter circular line running under trompeurs; comma after trompeurs deleted; arts w.u. in ink and pencil. CB inserts que . .. ignorant below the line (bottom of MS pp. 2-3); my arrow indicates its place in the sentence. 28. H crosses out son. 29. Above line, H misspells arrache. 32. H's accent on first e in epithetes. 33. Four lines under est; de fange w.u. in pencil overwritten with ink; jetee w.u., with an additional triple line under the ee. 36. H's accents on first e of realite and on cede. 42. Three lines under etait. 43. Four lines under le; CB's a> e. 47. In MS qui appears in margin to left of conseille; double line strikes out dit-il. 50. Three lines under le; CB's a> e. 51. CB crosses out qu'il est Iepre. 56. H's accent on desespoir. 57. The phrase se chargerw.u. in pencil, d'une partie in ink. In MS partie? ends the line, concluding the devoir, but in response to H's question, CB adds du fardeau on the next, preceding her centered double line.

422

Notes to Pages 204-11

COMMENTS

1. Villette, 35.582-83. 2. Villette, 35.583. Margaret Smith infers that volume 3, which CB mailed to Smith, Elder on November 20, was "well under way by 3 November" (xxxii). This episode comes midway through the volume, in chapter 35, "Fraternity." 3. Villette, 35.582. 4. BPM, Bonnell115. These two dictees follow the one by Michaud that CB used in writing "Peter the Hermit," so she must have transcribed them toward the end of the spring term or at the beginning of the fall. Duthie identifies them, respectively, as excerpts from Sermons pour la Careme, book 4, and Defense du Christianisme, discours 3 (Foreign Vision, 232). 5. Macdonald's description of his methods ("The BronU!s at Brussels," 283) is summarized in Introduction. 6. On the signs of correction that could not be reproduced in typescript, see Editorial Notes. 7. The manuscript is part of the Bonnell bequest to the Bronte Parsonage Museum. Wise, who got his devoirs from Nicholls after CB 's death, sold the Bonnells their collection. One possible sign that she returned to this devoir is a word scribbled sideways on page 4 of the manuscript, which could be "adieu." However, this identification is uncertain, and I cannot judge its provenance from the ink. 8. Villette, 35.579. 9. "Mrs. Sweeny's soothing syrup" refers back to Lucy's first night at the pensionnat, when she and Mme Beck discover the Irish nursery-governess passed out beside her bottle (Villette, 8.93). 10. Matthew Arnold set the theme in an 1853letter: "Why is Villette disagreeable? Because the writer's mind contains nothing but hunger, rebellion, and rage ... " (quoted in Allott, 93). Important twentieth-century feminist responses include Millett, 140-47; Gilbert and Gubar, 399-440; and Auerbach, 97-113.

21/22. The Palace of Death I Le Palais de Ia Mort (CB and EB versions) TEXTUAL NOTES (DEVOIR 21)

14-15. "young sphere ... launched in space": compare the combination of religion and astronomy in "The Immensity of God." 17. "noble savage": an allusion to Rousseau, with whose work CB was to some extent familiar; Heger and his colleagues were skeptical of Rousseau's educational theories. 18 (19). Methuselah: biblical patriarch who allegedly lived 969 years (Gen. 5.21-28). 19. Enoch, Abraham, Jacob: biblical patriarchs. Abraham was progenitor of the Hebrews; Jacob was his son. There are several Enochs; one was the son of Cain (Gen. 4.17), another the father of Methuselah.

Notes to Pages 212-17

423

20. Mesopotamia: literally, country among the rivers; ancient land between the Tigris and Euphrates, north and east of Palestine. 36 (37). By Dan, which she crossed out, CB might have meant the Don, a river of southern Russia; she substitutes the Neva, a northern Russian river. 55 (56). "faithful laborer in these fields": perhaps an ironic allusion to Jesus' parable ofthe laborers in the vineyard, Matt. 20. 68 (70). Amazon: CB's interest in these legendary warrior women also emerges in "The Death of Moses," where she personifies early Rome as "a young Amazon, full of ardor and ambition" (line 167). She alludes to the Amazon Penthesilia in a letter of 1850 (BLFC 3:187) and in Villette (30.505). 69 (71 ). Thalestris: queen of an Amazon nation on the Black Sea in the time of Alexander the Great, most famously described by Diodorus. For further information, see Comments. 89 ff. Compare the words of St. John Rivers, resisting his love for Rosamond Oliver: "I rested my temples on the breast of temptation, and put my neck voluntarily under her yoke of flowers; I tasted her cup. The pillow was burning: there is an asp in the garland ... " (JE, 476 [ch. 32, mod. eds.]). 96-97 (100). There may be an echo here of "Medisance" ("Slander"), a dictee by Massillon that CB copied: "[C]'est une source pleine d'un venin mortel; tout ce qui en part est infecte, et infecte tout ce qui l'environne; ses louanges meme sorit empoisonnees ... ses gestes, ses mouvements, ses regards, tout ason poison, et le repand asa maniere ... "([Slander] is a source full of mortal venom; all that emanates from it is infected, and it infects all that surrounds it; its very praises are poisonous ... its gestures, its motions, its looks, all [have] their poison and spread it in their own way ... ). EDITORIAL NOTES (DEVOIR 21)

The title and the "Matiere" take up the first page of the manuscript. The devoir begins on the second page (typescript line 11 ). H makes distinctions between wavy and straight underlines, but some of his notations under verb forms are ambiguous. 2. Title in CB's double-line print. 3. M of Matiere in CB's double-line print. 11. H's commas. 12. The phrase parter de may be w.u. 13. Indecipherable notation, crossed out, below pensee bonne in left margin. 16. In MS objOn in left margin. 17. H's diagonal line after epoque. 18-19. All punctuation H's. 20. H's circumflex; his accent on Mesopotamie. 21. H's tie lBM!!B 8 is directly above his correction (to the plural) of du pliturage. 23. CB probably started to write appete but changed it to an infinitive. 25. H's comma after qui. 26. H's accent on deserts; his comma following. 28. H converts CB's Ia to Ia and adds a comma, altering the syntax; my addition above line to indicate the change. 31. In margin, here and elsewhere, indecipherable signs (an abbreviation?) follow cherchez le sens de ce mot.

424

Notes to Pages 216-23

33. H's comma. 35. Four lines under y. 37. CB's deletion of Dan; H's accent on Neva. 40. Three lines under m in columnes. 41. Wavy semicircular line around tail/is. 42. Theword.froidsw.u.? 43. Underlining of teinte is slashed by a perpendicular line below second t; see Comments. 44. Three lines under les and garde. 54. H's deletion of mais. 56. H's comma; H strikes out fidele; CB has erased t under c of ces. 57. H's comma. 59. H's comma. 60. H's comma after /'amitie. 61. Comma after amour and semicolon both H's. 63. CB's strikeout of gliss; more indecipherable marks in margin following mot. 65. H corrects CB's accent on laisserent. 75. Indecipherable marks in margin after mot. 78. H's comma. 79. Question mark after pieds may be H's; line canceling apres curves up over word. 82. H's comma after sourit; his le > CB's les; his Ia > her /ant in semblant. 83. Three lines under sa. 85. H's comma after vives. 87. CB deletesjoie. 88. More symbols in margin following following cherchez. 89. H's accent on desordre. 93. H's accent on Intemperance. 94. H's accent on reclame. 95. CB converts rivaux to rivales; sacrifiee may have a last, crossed-out letter trailing down. 96. H's en is in left margin, next to cent. 97-98. Mort in both lines is slightly w.u.; H probably objected to the repetition. 101. The or of mortel d.u. above w.u., and the word is surrounded by n. TEXTUAL NOTES (DEVOIR 22)

Margaret Lane has done a graceful and literary translation of this devoir ("French Essays," 281-85); mine attempts to stick more closely to EB's lessthan-polished French. 22 ff. "the bones that lay strewn ...": Lane comments that EB's essay has a "medieval flavour" not found in her poems and cites this passage as "belong[ing] more to the fifteenth century than to the nineteenth" (Purely for Pleasure, 148). 25,27-29. EB's list recalls four of the Seven Deadly Sins: Anger, Envy, Sloth, and Covetousness. EDITORIAL NOTES (DEVOIR 22)

As in CB's devoir, the" Matiere" fills the first page of the manuscript, the devoir beginning on the second page (typescript line 10). H underscores with moderately wavy

Notes to Pages 219-25

425

lines but does not seem to create a deliberate distinction between straight and waved underlining. All corrections from line 62 on are in pencil; those before are in ink. EB's capitalization of La before Mort is inconsistent, and sometimes her I appears to be midway between upper and lower case.

2. Matiere in large print. Title small, as if squeezed in as an afterthought. H repeats Matiere, beginning the word in the left margin. 10. The title appears to the left of center. 21. The word cotes may be cotes. 24. H strikes out i of hidieusement. 29. Avarice> something indecipherable. 30. The r of obtinrent > something indecipherable. 32. An I> L(?) before Ambition; the top of the Fin Fanatisme extends as if she were beginning a T. 55. The word je precedes serai in the margin. 60. The word deleted below bannieres may be lumieres; du may > au. 62. First two letters of Famine> something indecipherable. 73. H strikes out the e of tarde. 87. M may be m, here and in line 89. COMMENTS

1. It is not clear whether they got these instructions in class or in a private lesson. As The Professor and Villette suggest, the dictee is a standard classroom exercise; CB kept at least one notebook of such extracts to be analyzed or imitated later. These devoirs, in contrast (and like "The Siege of Oudenarde"), follow a much stricter outline. Perhaps Heger gave such dietees to the class at large, or perhaps he saved them for pupils who could benefit from more controlled writing. 2. Aside from minor changes in paragraphing and punctuation, they differ only in the following: lines 4-5: "ministre etait" (CB); "ministre etait alors" (EB); line 5: "Ia mort eut tant" (CB); "Ia Mort avait tant" (EB); lines 7-8: "parait" (CB); "paraissait" (EB). The ellipses may indicate that Heger broke off or that he added untranscribed explanations. That both sisters set Ambition first, allude to Civilization, and give Intemperance a feverish complexion hint at supplementary instructions or collaboration between them. 3. "Four Essays," 9&--98. 4. "The Palace of Death," 803-4. In this article, Lane mentions that CB's "Death of Napoleon" exists in two versions, but apparently she remains unaware of CB 's "Palace of Death." 5. Margaret Lane, "The Palace of Death" (Letter), The Listener 52 (November 18, 1954): 865; on the same page, Frederick G. Richford suggests a further precedent in Caxton's translation of Geoffroi de Ia Tour; see Maxwell for discussion. 6. In "French Essays," 281-84, with French and English on facing pages but without the comments from The Listener. A note explains that the "introductory section ... has been freely translated by the Editor." 7. Maxwell, 139. He did not know of the "Matiere" preceding CB 's essay,

426

Notes to Pages 225-33

but the "Matiere" before EB's and the many points in common between the two texts persuaded him that both developed from an outline and topic that Heger had dictated. 8. Duthie cites a pertinent passage from Buffon's History ofAnimals: "Intemperance alone destroys and wastes more men than all of human nature's other plagues combined" ("L'intemperance detruit et fait languir plus d'hommes, elle seule, que tousles autres fteaux de Ia nature humaine reunis"; Duthie, Foreign Vision, 216 n. 44). But though Buffon is a source for earlier assignments, no proof exists that Heger mentioned this passage. 9. For example, at about this time she drafted these stanzas: Time stands before the door of Death, Upbraiding bitterly; And Conscience, with exhaustless breath, Pours black reproach on me: And though I think that Conscience lies, And Time should Fate condemn; Still, weak Repentance clouds my eyes, And makes me yield to them! ("Self-Interrogation," EB Poems, 23) 10. Gerin notes that Gothic fiction (by Mary Shelley, Scott, Hoffman, and others) was reviewed or serialized in the issues of Blackwood's that the Bronte children read and reread (EB, 213-19). 11. See, for example, "A Brace of ....... Characters" (CHEW 2.2:328, 331). Duthie also detects a similarity between Ambition's "Gothic train of 'gloomy phantoms'" and "the Genii in the early Angrian tales" (Foreign Vision, 33). 12. SeeJE, 215-16 (ch.17, mod. eds.). 13. On CB's knowledge of the classics, see the Comments on devoir27. 14. Diodorus Siculus (1st cent. B.c.) wrote the first surviving account of this Amazon. Four centuries later, the Roman Quintus Curtius provided a description close to CB 's: "the fold of the robe, which [the Amazons] gather in a knot, does not reach below the knee." Although I have taken this quotation from a modem source (Kleinbaum, 20), I have seen late-eighteenthcentury translations into English and French, with illustrations. Auerbach makes the additional point that "Amazons bob up repeatedly in Victorian writing" (78-79; see also~). 15. Listed in Heger's roster for the school year 1842-43. 16. "La forme qu'elle cachait ... etait une squelette!" (British Library, Ashley MS 160). This is one of Wise's manuscripts, and because he cut the pages from CB's notebook and bound them, its date cannot be ascertained. 17. "II est dans le Ciel une puissance divine, compagne assidue de Ia religion et de Ia vertu .... Quoique ses yeux soient couverts d'un bandeau, ses regards penetrent l'avenir; quelquefois elle tient des fteurs naissantes dans sa main; quelquefois une coupe pleine d'une liqueur enchanteresse, rien n'approche du charme de sa voix, de Ia grAce de son sourire; plus on avance

Notes to Pages 233-35

427

vers le tom beau plus elle se montre pure et brillante aux mortels consoles; Ia Foi et Ia Charite lui disent-ma soeur-elle se nomme .... !'Esperance" (BPM, Bonnelll15, 28-29). An earlier version, with light corrections and points subtracted in the margins for mistakes, is on p. 22 of a notebook ("Exercises sur les Participes") now in the Stark Collection, Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center. 18. There may also be a connection between this devoir and another dietee from the same notebook, "La Medisance" ("Slander"); see Textual Notes for lines 96-97 (100). 19. Gaskell, 11.230. 20. See Comments on devoir 5, especially n.ll.

23. The Fall of the Leaves I La Chute des Feuilles (CB), with dictee The Fall of the Leaves I La chute des Feuilles (CB) TEXTUAL NOTES (DEVOIR)

My translation is indebted to Phyllis Bentley's ("More Bronte Devoirs," 376-83). M. H. Spielmann's transcript of the French text ("An Early Essay by Charlotte Bronte," 23~) was also useful in deciphering Heger's comments. 3F. "La chute des Feuilles": elegy written by Charles-Hubert Millevoye (1784-1816). For further information on the poem and the poet, see Comments and the Textual Notes on the dictee. 4-9. This paragraph is unusually stiff, as if CB were trying for a scholarly effect. 12. Possibly an echo of the "pearl of great price" (Matt. 13.46). 27-28. "German student who believed ... ": possibly an allusion to Frankenstein, a Genevese who went to Ingolstadt to study medicine. He became obsessed with alchemy, a topic CB raises in line 61. (I am grateful to Janet Gezari for this suggestion.) 51-52. "Is that the methods all great poets follow?" This question and CB's approach to it are consistent with Shelley's views in the Defense of Poetry: "Poetry is not like reasoning, a power to be exerted according to the determination of the will .... I appeal to the great poets of the present day, whether it be not an error to assert that the finest passages of poetry are produced by labour and study." Written in 1821, the essay was first published in 1840. 53. "Souls made of fire and children of the Sun?": from"Edward Young, The Revenge (1721 ), act 2, scene 5. Young later wrote Conjectures on Original Composition (1759). 99. Heger seems to be suggesting that Virgil fashioned the story of Aeneas into a great epic, that Moliere refined the raw comedies of Plautus, and that Buffon in his Natural History developed the work of his collaborator Daubenton. 113F, 142F, 143F. Heger uses poete and poesie rather than the more stan-

428

Notes to Pages 235-491

dard poete and poesie; in his period, those terms suggested works in verse of an exalted scale or sweep. 121F./ivre: a unit of weight measurement, a little less than half a kilogram and therefore close to one pound. 135. Demosthenes: great Greek orator and leader, 4th cent. B.C., whoreputedly overcame a stammer by declaiming with pebbles in his mouth and speaking over the waves. EDITORIAL NOTES (DEVOIR)

CB capitalized the title of the poem inconsistently. I have standardized it in English and added quotation marks where she omits them. 2. In the manuscript Devoir I de style occupies two lines on the first page, with the text beginning on the second; Devoir is larger in CB 's devoir (italic) script, de style smaller in upright letters. 3. Title in CB's normal devoir hand, single line. 27-28. CB erases something between croyait and apprendre and adds the infinitive ending to apprendre. 33. CB starts to write qu~ converts it to qu 'il. 34. My sign added below soit, linking that word to H's pourquoi below the line, to show what he questions. 37. H suggests reversing the numbered clauses. 45. Last letters of obscur unclear; could be obfn. 53. Quoted English line in CB's proper-noun print. 81. La chute des feuilles in CB 's proper-noun print. 90. CB erased -at, the original ending of cherche, and apparently inserted a finale before the erasure. · 91-96. H's excellent is perpendicular to the text. 99. H adds en barres below his line, sloping down toward CB's. 103. H's accent in presence. 106. La chute des feuilles in CB's proper-noun print. 107. CB'ssa >her ses. 109. H uses a kind of caret rather than a diagonal. 114. H's iMetMe >something illegible. 115. H's second en is above the line. 131. The phrase de tout> something illegible, possibly c'est. 138. In MS qu'un >pas. 144. A faint 1precedes en (no apostrophe); savourez >something illegible. 134-40. Marginal comments perpendicular to text. TEXTUAL NOTES (DICTEE)

Millevoye may have written this elegy as early as 1809 (see Comments). It first became known to the public in 1812, when it won the prestigious Jeux Floraux. Subsequently, Millevoye kept revising it. According to his biographer, Pierre Ladoue, it exists in at least five variants: -the version that won the Jeux Floraux; though the manuscript is lost, a draft has been preserved in the records of the Academy of Toulouse for 1811 -the version in his first collected elegies (1812)

Notes to Pages 240-51

429

-versions in two subsequent collections (both 1815) -the posthumous edition of his Oeuvres completes (1822). This information is collated from the appendix and bk. 1, ch. 3, of Ladoue. A "Nouvelle edition" of the Oeuvres completes was published in Brussels in 1823. Like its predecessor, it includes three variants: the official version (1822); the second of the 1815 versions; and the first published version (1812). CB's dictee suggests that Heger read the class a transcript of the manuscript version (1811). That one does not appear in the collected editions, though it must have appeared in periodicals. He departs from it in two places, however; line 10 appears only in the 1822 official version, and lines 23-26 of the dictee follow the 1812 version. Perhaps he had access to an unrecorded variant; more probably, he did a bit of editing. In any case, his taste accords with Sainte-Beuve's, who also preferred the first draft. See his introduction to Millevoye, 7; see also Charles Nodier's editorial note to Oeuvres completes de Millevoye (Paris: Ladvocat, 1822), 1:179. CB's transcription appears to be accurate, aside from punctuation errors. For example, in line 5 the comma should follow Triste, rather than mourant, and in line 23 an exclamation point should follow meurs. The one vocabulary error is me predit (10); it should be a predit. There are two nineteenth-century translations. John Bowring did the first in 1823; however, as Sainte-Beuve has pointed out, he translated the poem from Russian, not French, and was under the impression that "Milonov" had written it. For the record, I quote his first stanza: "Th' autumnal winds had stripp'd the field I Of all its foliage, all its green; I The winter's harbinger had still'd I That soul of song which cheer'd the scene" ("The Fall of the Leaf," Specimens of the Russian Poets [London: Whittaker, 1823], 2:223). A second translation appeared in a book edited by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, The Poets and Poetry of Europe (Philadelphia: Carey and Hart, 1845). Though closer to Millevoye's text than Bowring's, it too takes liberties: "Autumn had stripped the grove, and strewed I The vale with leafy carpet o'er, I Shorn of its mystery the wood, I And Philomel bade sing no more ... " (484). I have therefore done a modern version that tries to suggest (though not to duplicate) the shifts in meter of the French original and give its sense as literally as possible. COMMENTS

1. It is positioned between dictees on which she based two devoirs submitted in June 1842: "Eudorus" (fourth entry; see devoir 9) and "Mirabeau on the Tribune" (eighth entry; see devoirs 10 and 11). 2. Lets., 312. 3. CB dated one translation (from Belmontet) "Fevrier, 1843," another (from Barbier) "Mars 1843," and a notebook of translations from German into English "April251h 1843." The remainder are undated, cut from their

430

Notes to Pages 250-54

original notebook(s) and rebound by Thomas Wise. Neufeldt dates those texts from this period ( CB Poems, 490) and I agree with his assessment. 4. Sir Walter Scott, The Lady of the Lake, canto 3, pt.16 (Philadelphia: Edward Earle, 1810), 94. 5. CB Poems, 364; seches sic. 6. "La perle du recueil, la piece dont tous se souviennent" (Millevoye, 7).

7. On these questions, see the section "Genius" in the Introduction. 8. Preface to Lyrical Ballads (1800), reprinted in The Complete Poetical Works of Wordsworth (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1932), 791, 794. 9. Devoir 4 (corrected version), lines 47-52. 10. On the successive revisions, see the Textual Notes on the dictee. There is no way to prove what Heger knew about the context of the poem and Millevoye's theories. But if he had read any edition of the poet's work, he would have seen the essay, a brief biography, and at least one variant of "La Chute des Feuilles." 11. "Millevoye avait ete invite a diner, le jour de la foire de saint Severin, aCrecy, chez un magistrat retraite. Le poete partit le matin pour faire une promenade dans la for~t. Les convives l'attendirent vainement. II ne rentra que le soir. Le lendemain des paysans raconterent qu'ils l'avaient vu seul et faisant des gestes. Quelques jours apres Millevoye lisait la Chute des feuilles" (reported by Henri Potez-who heard it from aM. Coache of Abbeville, who heard it from his grandmother-in L'Elegie en France, 433-34). Potez expresses his own skepticism about the story. 12. "M~me en chantant le bonheur, elle peut conserver la teinte de tristesse qui lui est propre. Ce melange d'impressions opposees ajoute ason effet. Elle se plait surtout au souvenir de ce qui n'est plus .... II n'est point pour elle d'objet inanime; pour elle les ruines sont vivantes, la solitude est peuplee, et la tombe a cesse d'~tre muette" ("Sur l'elegie," Oeuvres, 33-34). 13. Information drawn from Porter, 30-31. 24. Letter (My Dear Jane) I Lettre (Ma chere Jane) (CB) TEXTUAL NOTES

67 (71). "desert of heath": bruyere may also have been the word that CB found closest to "moor." 68-70 (72-74). In "Isidore," chapter 9 of Villette, Lucy alludes to the "marsh-phlegm" of the Labessecourians (113). CB's description ofthe Belgians in her May 1letter to Branwell (reproduced in Comments) is similar. 71-72 (75-76). "The Violet," a poem CB wrote at age fourteen, includes the lines, "Not e'en the eagles royal wing I Waves in the sky" (CB Poems, 65). 81 (85). Glen Morven: literally, "great glen," or dale. Glen More is in Perthshire on the south side of Schiehallion. 82 (86). Ben Nevis: mountain in the Grampians (Scotland), the highest

Notes to Pages 254-65

431

elevation in Great Britain. Shihallion (properly, Schiehallion): mountain in Perthshire; see Comments, n. 10. In The Spell CB alludes to Ben Carnach, Glen Avon, and Loch Sunart (CBEW2.2:215); she also alludes to them in "A Brace of ....... Characters" (CBEW2.2:327, 329, 330). EDITORIAL NOTES

The five-page manuscript is written in CB's rough-draft hand, the script she uses to compose her notes for "The Death of Moses." The first paragraph is fully indented; the others vary in degree of indentation. For ease of reading, I have normalized them. All corrections are hers; her additions are made in the left margin. 5. CB adds a small unaccented e to change trouve from a participle to the present tense but does not delete the accented e; the second e slopes down. 30. The 'a above the line is not crossed out but is clearly included in the deletion; there is an accent mark resembling a grave above trouve and an s(?) above the secondne. 36. CB starts to accent repousser, cancels accent. 40. The ap added to parait is in smaller letters; un in margin, preceding oiseau. 50-54. The marginal comment is probably meant to replace the canceled dit I'oiseau ... vigne on lines 52-53; !I8IH is below se balanfant. 58. CB deletes this passage but misses the pe of tape, je, and singe; her line passes under, not through, evanouis. 66. Indecipherable marks below the line, resembling parentheses. 70-71. In MS, a single diagonal extends from qui through dans un and presumably the end of the paragraph. 80. The word nous may be crossed out; conduit in large letters slopes down to the line. COMMENTS

1. Lets., 317. 2. Four of the five pages have a margin penciled in; the last does not. 3. EW, 175. Alexander identifies the entry as the fragment that begins "My Compliments to the weather.... " 4. BPM, Bonnell 98(6), quoted and paraphrased in EW, 175. 5. See EW, 171 and 175 (MS ofJune 28, 1838, BPM, Bonnell114). 6. 5 Novs., 206. 7. Ibid., 209. 8. Ibid., 210. Alexander correctly warns against the "mistake" of reading CB's life into her manuscripts (EW, 186) but then points out the many similarities between this character and her author: "Like Charlotte, Elizabeth Hastings paints landscapes, is proud of her knowledge of French and takes a great deal of interest in politics ... " (187). She also paces like CB and reflects the same concerns about her social insignificance and plainness. 9. See, for example, Lord Ravenswood's description to Mina Laury of living together in his castle in the Highlands ("The Spell," ch. 7, in CBEW 2.1:215). 10. Schiehallion, for example, is cited in Scott's Waverly (ch. 18 n) and in Rob Roy (ch. 23). The mountain also "acquired great celebrity" from having been chosen by a Greenwich astronomer for an experiment to ascertain

432

Notes to Pages 260-69

"the Newtonian principle of gravitation" (The Gazetteer of Scotland [Dundee: Chalmers, 1803]). 11. The sketch follows page 5 of the manuscript. But unlike the paper on which "My dear Jane" is written, the paper on which the sketch appears is hand-ruled. The difference suggests that the sketch may not have been drawn to accompany this fragment; this may be another case of Wise's tampering with manuscripts to make them more salable. 12. See, for instance, Eddie Flintoff, In the Steps of the Brontes (Newbury, Berkshire: Countryside, 1993), 136. 13. Lets., 289. 14. Ibid.,317. 15. Ibid., 329.

25. The Death of Napoleon/ La Mort de Napoleon (CB) and On the Death of Napoleon I Sur Ia mort de Napoleon (H) TEXTUAL NOTES (CORRECTED VERSION)

My translation is indebted to Margaret Lane's ("French Essays," 274-81) but differs for reasons explained in Comments. 38. "sepulchre, empty now": Napoleon's body had been exhumed and returned to France for reburial; also see Comments. 40. Napoleon was born in 1769 and died in 1821. 44. Golgotha: site of the Crucifixion; CB also alludes to it in "Evening Prayer in a Camp" (line 39). 51 ff. "crime of Prometheus": in Greek mythology, the Titan who stole fire from Olympus to give it to mankind. CB alludes to this episode in "The Spell. An Extravaganza" (June 21, 1834): "And thou, too, our young Jupiter; denounce vengeance, hurl thy thunderbolts, bind Prometheus to the rock, transfix him with barbed lightnings, and get the insatiable vulture to gnaw the irradicable liver!" (CBEW 2.2:221 ). The trope was also common among French Romantic poets; consider the lines in Hugo's poem "Mazeppa" on "le grand vautour fauve I Qui fouille au ftanc des morts...." 60-61. "the soul's hunger and thirst": in his August 15, 1843, Prize Day speech Heger refers to "!'emulation" as "cette soif ardente de !'Arne, cet insatiable appetit vers les choses rneilleures" (11). In revising CB's devoir, he retains her phrase but moves it to a new position; compare "Sur Ia mort de Napoleon," lines 26-27. 74-75. Ulysses: reference to an episode in the Odyssey, book 12. 89 ff. "his noble peer": Arthur Wellesley, first duke of Wellington (1769-1852); conquerer of Napoleon at Waterloo, 1815; prime minister of England, 1828-30; CB's and Patrick Brontt!'s hero. 95 ff. "It is an abuse of your privilege ... ": Louise de Bassornpierre recalls a classroom "altercation" on this subject; see Comments and n. 21 there. 123 ff. On Wellington's disregard for public opinion, CB echoes his own

Notes to Pages 269-91

433

statements: "I (who have more reason than any other public man ofthe present day to complain of libels of this description) never take the smallest notice of them; and have never authorized any contradiction to be given ... "(response to the press of January 7, 1811, Maxims and Opinions ... , ed. George Henry Francis [London: Henry Colburn, 1845], 109, as cited by Kirshner, 1). 128 ff. "In revenge, the people ... ": as Kirshner points out (1), Bronte's Shirley echoes this passage: "England has howled savagely against this man, uncle; and she will one day roar exultingly over him. He has been unscared by the howl, and he will be unelated by the shout" (Shirley, 630; ch. 32, mod. eds. ). Shirley also refers to Wellington as "the present idol of my soul" (629). 131. "the proud Coriolanus": Roman patrician, subject of a Shakespeare play, notoriously arrogant toward the plebians he was willing to rescue from starving. 136. Satrap: in ancient Persia, governor of a province. 137. "ducal palace of Apsley": as Duthie points out (Foreign Vision, 44), this allusion is anachronistic. Wellington bought Apsley House from his brother, the marquis of Wellesley, in 1816, when his popularity was at a high. He confronted hostile mobs most famously during the first Reform Bill agitation of 1831-32. One nineteenth-century biographer comments, "How he escaped with his life, passing daily as he did through crowds of persons inflamed to the highest pitch of fury against him, it is not easy to say" (Brialmont 3:417). 142-43. Jonah's vine: biblical allusion to Jonah 4.6-11. Compare Lucy Snow's allusion to Jonah's gourd (Villette, 6.64). In his version, Heger mistranscribes the name as Josiah. 144-45. "banks of the Shannon": Patrick Bronte and his children took pride in Wellington's Irish roots. 146 ff. "[the oak] grows slowly": in revising this passage for his version, Heger probably plays on La Fontaine's famous fable "Le Chene et le roseau" ("The Oak and the Reed"). Compare his phrase "brave & la faux du temps et !'effort des vents & des tempetes" (113-14) with La Fontaine's "Brave !'effort de la tempete." The fable appears in the anthology Heger gave CB, Les Fleurs de Ia poesie fran~aise (Rabion, 52-53). 149. "a century more ... ": again, a suggestion ofthe uneven course of Wellington's reputation in his lifetime. EDITORIAL NOTES (CORRECTED VERSION)

This is the most cluttered of the devoir manuscripts; it is not possible to reproduce the full range of Heger's markings and the size of his letters, which range from extra large to miniature. His notations are in ink and in pencil. As usual, words inked in the MS appear in bold, and penciled words appear in regular type; all other markings are in ink unless noted here as being in pencil. 2-4. The title is in large letters, normal devoir script. The accent on Napoleon is double-lined.

434

Notes to Pages 282-93

8. The s is deleted in pencil. 12. The word particulier may be w.u. 13. H's accents on cote. 16. In MS le manteau appears below des robes; done in left margin possibly follows particulier but is adjacent to H's le manteau. 18. The locution sait-il is a Belgicisme; un homme is below the line, with a connecting diagonal. 19. The phrase Ia dire is below the line; H's I is elongated. 22. The phrase qui I'entourent may be w.u. 23. H begins something over the crossed-out n but cancels it. 24. The word qualite is partly underlined in pencil; an ink line loops around pour qualite distinctive. 25. The crossouts of le and plutot are in pencil. 25-29. My arrows track the sentence H rewrites after crossouts: froide et sans portee suffisante pour les(?] juger. ... 27. The word plutot appears in the left margin, next to que; the underlining is in pencil. 29. A semicircular line extends over et, further suggesting its deletion; correct w.u. in pencil. 30-31. H's revision spans three lines, above and below CB's; in MS a penciled line shows where the insert goes; in this book, a caret and [La Prevention] clarify thesequence, which begins Ril • 8M llll'iiR feee lie Ia reali•e. 1'8R,R8118i88Mil 'lei• J!lll8111lill8 (not reproduced). H's Mediocrite >Moderation; the d of decouvrir >something illegible; elle is below and to the left of CB 's peut; decouvrir is above her voir. 31. Something> trop, canceling it out; the illegible word that follows is struck out; H's ses > CB 's son. 33. The finale of meme is underlined in pencil, with the underscore extending beyond the letter. 35. Here and in line 40, CB writes Ste. 37. H's commas after d'etre and inferieur and his accent on independant are all in pencil. 40. H's notation and wavy line in left margin of MS may suggest that the next draft should begin here. 41-43. H's marginal comment runs perpendicular to the text in the MS. 42. My arrows; in MS son ... tombe is directly below les deux etats, qu 'y a-t-il is above a qu 'une, and -Ia is above carriere. 44. H's a > e in Golgotha, in pencil. 47. The phrase dans son palais has a line rather than a caret below it. 48. Something illegible is crossed out above femme; aimait is underlined and crossed out in pencil. 49-50. Crossouts in pencil, including (1 ); corrections in ink. 51. The phrase lie a is crossed out in pencil with a v-shaped symbol; a line below enchaine links it to lie. 52. Crossout of sa in pencil; H's le > Ia in pencil. 53. H's deroba > vola and trails down. 57. The word punir is in the left margin of the MS, preceding de Ia rapacite. 58. The word enchafne, which trails down, partly > lie. 60-65. Margin comment is perpendicular to text. 61. H's bracket in pencil. 67. Small additional line runs down from pas to grand.

+

Notes to Pages 283-87

435

73. H's tiny une runs below line. 75. H's accent on Sirenes. 77. A line arcs up above tout to indicate placement of H's phrase; his iReel'M is below d'un peuple and probably modified CB's peuple; the line after corps is in pencil. 77-78. H's s's >/'sin ses, ses, sa. 79. H's -(?] in pencil below les a-t-il. 80-81. H makes CB's hommes singular and adds I' to attach it to his own phrase, which he then transposes; I could not exactly reproduce this sequence in the English version. 83. Vertical line after utiles and line under original t of permet in pencil. 84. H's de larmes may > something illegible. 85. H's f1M >de, which he also crosses out; his tiH below line. 86. The phrase son lime ... cela is written above this line but clearly follows restes. 88. The word su trails down below the line. 89. The phrase en genie trails down below the line; Bin pencil under N of Napoleon. 90. The word paire is partly struck out in ink and partly underlined in pencil, perhapsw.u. 91. The word vainquer [sic] is underlined in pencil; passu is a Belgicisme. 92. H adds a more substantial comma to CB's small one after victoire. 95-%. H's cette > his Ia; his u > e in du and extends the line to votre to delete it. 97. H's son is in the left margin, preceding ennemi. 99. The phrase molles & is in the left margin; timorees continues into page, above imbeciles; H's tes > re of seduire. 100. H originally writes sait above underlined savait (both in pencil) and then overwrites it with n 'a jamais su. 101. The word aimait is crossed out in pencil; a above is in pencil and ink. 107. H's veux > CB'ssuis above the line; the end ofx descends diagonally to strike out resolu. 109. H probably meant to delete Ia from cela. 111. A line after~ indicates where I' Europe belongs. 114. S1e in MS; H's r breaks into reflechissez; his et extends to strike out pas and ne. 115. Indecipherable word, beginning conv becomes convenable in H's draft. 120. Vertical line after Napoleon in pencil. 121. One of H's commes is superfluous; line from e of third comme descends to strike out en; his ne lui> something illegible. 123. H's gloire >his popularite and may be capitalized. 126. Both the semicolon and comma appear to be H's. 127. H's s >I of les. 128. H's malgre starts on line and runs down; it may be struck out; his line around l'approuve curves. The sense of his corrections is not wholly clear. 130. H's a qui it> eta; he strikes it out and writes et quand il above. 132. H's I> s of ses. 133-35. H writes and then strikes out leflot populaire between il bravait and l'emeute (not shown in printed text); lorsque(?) is above et le flot; impuissant> something illegible; puis is above lui, et and a line from the s extends downward to strike out et;foule > peuple. 137. H's I> s of sa. 138. My J indicates where H's phrase belongs. 140. CB strikes out lui and adds words above line.

436

Notes to Pages 287-91

142. H's comma. 143. CB seems to have begun writing Josiah and then corrects si to get Jonah; in H's draft for Gaskell, he incorrectly writes Josiah. 144E. My line added to show placement of sufficed. 146. End of H's non drops down to strike out CB 'spas. 147. H's ces > CB's des; H's comma. 148. H's du sol> CB's l'fle and is then crossed out; H adds inebranlable above his phrase, indicating placement with a caret. EDITORIAL NOTES (HEGER'S VERSION)

When Heger makes corrections that affect his meaning, I include them in the transcript. He also crosses out and overwrites words, but because his French is not in question, that editing is not noted here. COMMENTS

1. This quotation appears in Gaskell2:9.610 n. Gaskell also quotes Patrick Bronte!'s observation, "When mere children, as soon as they could read and write, Charlotte and her brother and sisters, used to invent and act little plays of their own, in which the Duke of Wellington my Daughter Charlotte's Hero, was sure to come off, the conquering hero ... " (vol. 1, ch. 3; quoted here from the manuscript version in Barker, 109). 2. Villette, 30.503. 3. Gaskell, 12.255: 4. Gaskell, 11.238. 5. "French Essays," 274-81. The first page of the manuscript is also reproduced there in photocopy. 6. For previous comments on this devoir, see Duthie, Foreign Vision, 42-45; Lonoff, "Charlotte Bronte's Belgian Essays," 395-97; Kirshner, 1-2; and Barker,416-17. 7. Adapted from Hugo, "Mirabeau," 342-43 ("La mediocrite serait bien importunee par l'homme de talent si l'homme de genie n'etait pas la; mais l'homme de genie est la, elle soutient l'homme de talent et se sert de lui contre le maitre .... La mediocrite est pour celui qui la gene le moins et qui lui ressemble le plus," Hugo, "Sur Mirabeau," 199). 8. "Mirabeau," 355 ("le dieu d'une nation en divorce avec son roi," Hugo, "Sur Mirabeau," 207). 9. "Mirabeau," 373-74. The full passage in French reads" ... le parti de l'avenir se divise en deux classes: les hommes de revolution, les hommes de progres. Ce soot les hommes de revolution qui dechirent Ia vieille terre politique.... Aux hommes de progres appartiennent la lente et laborieuse culture des principes ... le travail au jour le jour, l'arrosement de lajeune plant, l'engrais du sol, Ia recolte pour tous" ("Sur Mirabeau," 218-19). 10. "Ainsi, pere, mere, femme, son precepteur, son colonel, Ia magistrature, la noblesse, le roi, c'est-a-dire tout ce qui entoure et ootoie l'existence d'un homme dans l'ordre legitime et naturel, tout est pour lui traverse, obstacle, occasion de chute et de contusion ... "("Sur Mirabeau," 207; "Thus,

Notes to Pages 291-304

437

father, mother, wife, his tutor, his colonel, the magistracy, the noblesse, the king, that is to say, all that surrounds and skirts the existence of a man in the legitimate and natural order, [all is] for him a cross, an obstacle, [an occasion of tumble and contusion] ... ," "Mirabeau," 355). See these texts for numerous other parallels. 11. Her response remained strong long after Brussels: "The fact is that this great Mirabeau was a mixture of divinity and dirt; that there was nodivinity whatever in his errors ... ; that they ruined him, brought down his genius to the kennel ... ; that they cut him off in his prime, obviated all his aims, and struck him dead in the hour when France most needed him" (letter toW. S. Williams, June 22, 1848, in BLFC 2:224-25). 12. "Napoleon" (CB's title), lines 5 and 50 (CB Poems, 355-356; see also the variants, 488-489). 13. Duthie, Foreign Vision, 40; see also 39. 14. Lets., 317. 15. Alexander gives a useful overview of this subject; see EW, 24-28 ff. 16. Scott's Life of Napoleon Buonaparte was published in nine volumes, in 1827. CB refers to it in "First Volume of Tales ofthe Islanders June 30 1829" ( CBEW 1:28); see also CBEW 1:88-90. 17. Napoleon and Marie Louise figure in "The Green Dwarf," a story she wrote at seventeen; see CBEW2.1:139-42. (Clement Shorter printed the fragment in which they appear as "Napoleon and the Spectre.") In Branwell's "The Pirate," also from 1833, Napoleon threatens an invasion (Misc. 1:174). Zamoma's later (1835) banishment to Ascension Isle echoes Napoleon's to St. Helena, as Duthie has pointed out (Foreign Vision, 11). 18. On "Caroline Vernon" and Napoleon, see EW, 196-97; the text is in Five Novelettes. 19. See Seaward, 185-88. Gerin points out that Lebel was the model for Pelet in The Professor (CB, 314-15). 20. As an Anglican resident in Brussels, CB would have had a weekly reminder of Napoleon's presence there: he had given the Protestant community the Chapel Royal, where she and EB went for Sunday services. 21. "[U]n jour meme il y eut une petite altercation entr'elles au sujet de l'Empereur Napoleon: les eleves reprochurent aMiss Charlotte la conduite de l'Angleterre envers l'Empereur, et semblaient lui en endosser aellememe la responsabilite: je me souviens que je rappelai les plus excitees au calme en leur disant que Miss Bronte n'y etait pour rien et qu'il valait mieux abandonner ce sujet ... "(letter of March 1913, printed in "Two Brussels School-fellows, 26-27). She infers that Bronte's gratitude was later expressed in her use of the name "de Bassompierre" in Villette. 22. CB's choice, though probably unconscious at the time, might be the basis for chapter 31 of Jane Eyre, in which Jane contrasts her healthy life as village schoolmistress with fantasies of life in France as Rochester's mistress.

438

Notes to Pages 304-6

23. Introduction, liii-liv. 24. Heger heavily reworked his own comparison, but space does not permit full disclosure in the typescript; see Editorial Notes for further details. 25. "The Palace of Death," 803. 26. Lets., 320.

26. The Death of Moses I La Mort de Moise and Notes on the Death of Moses/Notes sur La Mort de Moise (CB) TEXTUAL NOTES (DEVOIR)

My translation is indebted to Phyllis Bentley's ("More Bronte Devoirs," 366-75). The account of Moses' death in the devoir is based on Deut. 32.48-52 and 34.1-5. 2. This title is a variant of the one Gaskell cites (11.238); see Comments. 3. Moses' age is given in Deut. 31.2 and 34.7. 3-4. CB facetiously begins "My Angria and the Angrians" (1834) with a vision of the Children of Israel going into exodus (CBEW2.2:240). 14-17. Deut. 32.1-43, sometimes titled "The Song of Moses," is written as poetry; so is Deut. 33.2-29, "Moses Blesses the Tribes of Israel." 17-20. The quotation adopts the phrasing of Deut. 32.49-50. 23. In Deut. 33.4-25 Moses recalls Jacob's blessing of the tribes; Jacob's version of the blessing is in Gen. 49. 26. "ruby rays"/"reftets des rubis": in Shirley, CB considers the difficulties of rendering reflets in English (644; ch. 33, mod. eds. ). 58-64. Heger's marginal comment, as quoted and translated by Gaskell (11.238), does not appear in this draft of the devoir, though clearly it would come at this point; see Comments. 61. The veil is an image often used by the Romantics; CB's allusion to Sais in "Athens Saved by Poetry" (202) comes from a Schiller poem about the veiled goddess of truth. 62-63 (63-64). "When the Bible says ... ": see Deut. 5.4. 68-70. "When the sacred historian ... ": see Deut. 5.22, and compare "The Nest," 37-42 (39-44). 80-81. The seraph allusion may anticipate a passage in "The First BlueStocking," the devoir CB inserts into Shirley. Eva, seeking "Guidancehelp--comfort" is aided by "that Seraph, on earth named Genius" (551-52; ch. 28, mod. eds.); see also the seraph allusion in Villette, 22.350. 103-106. "Look to the South ... ": much of CB's phrasing parallels Deut. 34.1-4. 111-14. Duthie (Foreign Vision, 217 n. 43) points out the correspondence of this passage to one in Chateaubriand'sA tala; Rene leads Atala "[aux pieds] des coteaux qui formaient des golfes de verdure en avan~ant leurs promontoires dans Ia savane" ("to the foot of slopes that formed gulfs of verdure advancing their promontories into the savannah"). It also recalls a passage fromCB's "A Leaf from an Unopened Volume" (1834) in which

Notes to Pages 306-17

439

Lord Charles Wellesley gazes down on "a noble expanse of green sunny slopes stretching on further than the eye could follow like a magnificent sea of verdure, dotted here and there by trees which, for their colossal and sublime magnitude, might be compared to islands. Groups of deer reposed under the groves of foliage which each gigantic son of the forest lifted into that profoundly tranquil atmosphere of evening. Hills long and low bounded the distance; to the right hand appeared a far-off glittering sweep of the Calabar, followed all along its banks by the domes and pillars of Adrianopolis, but dimly seen through the golden haze flung over them by the declining sun" (CBEW2.1:328). 115. Deut. 32.14 alludes to the goats and rams ofBashan; see also Psalms 22.12. This image also appears in a BPM manuscript, probably part of CB's Roe Head Journal, ca. October 1836: "Wiggins [Branwell] might indeed talk of scriblomania if he were to see me just now, encompassed by the bulls (query calves ofBashan), all wondering why I write with my eyes shut, staring, gaping" (/£Norton, 416). 120-22. Gaskell paraphrases Heger's remarks (12.238), which she saw on the draft no longer extant; I quote them further in Comments. The description in Jane Eyre of Blanche Ingram playing Rebekah recalls this passage: "She, too was attired in Oriental fashion ... her beautifully-moulded arms bare, one of them upraised in the act of supporting a pitcher, poised gracefully on her head. Both her cast of form and feature, her complexion and her general air, suggested the idea of some Israelitish princess of the patriarchal days ... " (28.161). 124. Moloch, or Molech: a god of the Ammonites, linked to the practice of child sacrifice. 143 (144). "shepherd-king": David, the father of Solomon. 144. Rehoboam: the son who succeeded Solomon and antagonized the people of Israel. All the tribes except Judah rebelled and made Jereboam their king; see 1 Kings 12. 145. "splits in two the trunk": CB's image of a split tree here may anticipate the chestnut that splits on the night of Jane Eyre's betrothal to Rochester (end ch. 23). 145-47. Throughout this section, CB chooses characters and episodes from 1 Kings. Ahijah was the father of King Baasha of Israel (15.27, 33). Baasha was succeeded by Elah, Zimri, Omri, and then Ahab. Ahab married Jezebel and introduced the worship of her god, the Phoenician Baal, into Israel. 147-49. On Jehu and Athaliah, see 2 Kings 9-11. Jehu killed Ahaziah, son of Athaliah and king of Judah. Athaliah then destroyed all the king's sons, except for one who was secretly rescued, and seized the throne herself; she too was slain. CB seems also to have known Racine's 1691 tragedy Athalie, since Shirley Keelder implores Henry Moore to recite "Le Songe d'Athalie" ("Athalie's Dream") from it (Shirley, 458; ch. 28, mod. eds.).

440

Notes to Pages 316-21

152. Isaiah: Hebrew prophet, purported author of the biblical book of that name. 153. The era of captivity: the expulsion of the Jews to Babylon by Nebuchadnezzar II and the period of their exile there (6th cent. B.c.). 156. Euphrates: river of southwestern Asia. 169-70. "no territory beyond a field ...": CB confuses the legend of the founding of Rome with that of Carthage, whose citadel, or bursa, was measured in this way; see Livy, The History of Rome, bk. 34, sec. 62.12. 172. "[Rome] crushes the palm of Judea": on this point, the devoir is anachronistic. In 65 B.c. Jerusalem was captured by Pompey and a few years after by Herod the Great with the aid of the Romans; but its "crushing," first by Titus and then by Julianus Severus, took place after Jesus' death. 179. "Celestial voices ... ":see Luke 2.10. 183-86. "the words of Simeon ... ":Simeon, a "just and devout" man, saw the infant Jesus before dying. CB makes a few modifications in the biblical account. For example, she skips "according to thy word" after "peace" and changes "the Gentiles" to "all the nations." By and large, however, she follows Luke 2.29-32. EDITORIAL NOTES (DEVOIR)

CB made several erasures in this draft; not all could be reconstructed. 1. The last digit of the date is tom off. 2. The title is in CB's double-line print. 3. Erasure under voyait. 4. Erasure at end of restait. 8-9. Diagonal line in pencil that seems accidental runs from nations to rappela. 17. An erased s may conclude Monte. 45. CB alters. 54. Pencil line descends from colon, after blancs; reason unclear. 63. The word literal is spelled with one t (the English way) rather than two. 72. An e under i in severite; de erased between que and demandaient. 125. Theuerasedfromd[u]. 126. An e > a in les. 132. The r in offre > something illegible, possibly an accent; beneath c in extinction CB seems to have begun a t. 170. Possibly a dash after Rome. 172. CB does not erase a in converting Ia to l'. TEXTUAL NOTES (NOTES)

These untitled and unsigned notes evidently accompany "The Death of Moses" and suggest CB's ideas for its ending. 25-29. CB paraphrases Luke 2.30-32, on which I have drawn for the translation. COMMENTS

1. Quoted in Lock and Dixon, 351. 2. Gaskell, 11.238.

Notes to Pages 310-28

441

3. The account of his last hours is given in a dozen verses, Deut. 32.48-52 and 34.1-7; she also refers to his song and his blessings. See Textual Notes for further details. 4. They are, respectively, the fourth and fifth of Delavigne's Messeniennes, a title that alludes to the misfortunes of Messina in its wars with Sparta, as elegized by Tyrtius. Delavigne intended to develop analogies between the past and present. 5. Wells claims that it is "manifestly inspired" by Vigny's Moise (90); however, he provides no evidence. 6. Gaskell discusses this devoir in her chapter on 1842 but without recording its date. Duthie, Alexander, and Wells assign 1843 to it, as does my Belgian assistant. 7. CB seems to have taken back to Haworth only the rough notes for the ending. 8. This episode becomes the basis for an argument between Robert Moore and He istone in Shirley, 46-47 (ch. 3, mod. eds. ). 9. "C'est lui qui delivra nos tribus opprimees I Sous le poids d'unjoug rigoureux .... "These lines closely follow a question that might also have made an impression on CB: "Qui t'inspira de quitter ton vieux pere, I De preferer aux baisers de ta mere, I L'horreur des camps, le carnage et Ia mort?" ("Who inspired you to leave your old father, I To prefer to the kisses of your mother, I The horror of the camps, carnage and death?"; Delavigne, 21). 10. Delavigne, 44. 1l.JE, 407 (ch. 27, mod. eds.). 12. Chateaubriand, Lamartine, de Vigny, and Chateaubriand himself wrote of Moses; see Introduction, lxii. 13. Lamartine shows Moses climbing Sinai, not Nebo, but the spectacle is similar: "Un homme, un homme seul, gravit tes ftancs qui grondent: I En vain tes mille echos tonnent et se repondent, I Ses regards assures ne se detournent pas! I Tout un people eperdu le regarde d'en bas; I Jusqu'aux lieux oi:J ta cime et le ciel se confondent, I II monte, et Ia tempete enveloppe ses pas! ("A man, a lone man mounts your groaning flanks: I In vain your thousand echoes thunder and reply, I His firm gaze does not turn aside! I A whole bewildered people regards him from below; I To the place where your peak and the sky merge, I He ascends, and the tempest envelops his steps"; Harmonies, 137 [the poem is listed as Harmony 8, series 2, in a text that Heger could have used in his classes: Lamartine, Oeuvres [Brussels: Societe Beige, 1841], 130-31). 14. Gaskell kept a careful record of Heger's statements, aside from minor lapses in French. If she says he cited "De Ia Vigne's ... Joan of Arc," then he did not cite Vigny's "Moses." But he also told Gaskell during their interview that CB based "Peter the Hermit" on one dictee, whereas CB's notebook reveals another source for it. In this case too, she may have been responding to more than one text she had read.

442

Notes to Pages 328-31

15. "Laissez-rnoi rn'endorrnir du sornrneil de Ia terre," lines 70, 90, 106; "triste et seul dans rna gloire," line 98 (Poemes, 11-13). 16. Villette, 29.493. 17. Gaskell, 11.238. 18. Duthie also traces sources for CB's "landscape painting" and pictorial vision; see Foreign Vision, 46--47. 19. See the Textual Notes on lines 111-14 and 145; oriental imagery and costume descriptions also recur throughout her juvenilia. 20. Lets., 274.

17. Athens Saved by Poetry I Athenes sauvee par Ia Poesie (CB) TEXTUAL NOTES (ORIGINAL)

My translation is indebted to Dorothy L. Cornish's ("Four Essays," 90-96). 4. Peloponnesian War(s): fought between Sparta (Lacedaernon) and Athens, 431-404 B.c. Lysander brought them to a close. 9. Lysander: Spartan leader and naval commander, d. 395 B.c. 12-13 ff. CB conftates two passages in The Iliad. The first is from book 9, a description of the banquet prepared by Achilles and his friend Patroclus for Ulysses and other leaders. The second is from the conclusion of book 20, a description of Achilles in battle: "Thus to be magnified, I His most inaccessible hands in human blood he dyed" (The Iliads of Homer, trans. George Chapman [London: Charles Knight, 1843], 1:201-2 and 2:166). Heger underlines the phrase to question it, and she deletes it from her revised version. 26 (25). Sarnos and Chios: both islands were famous for their wines and fertile soil, and both were allies of Athens. 31. Lycurgus: legendary leader and lawgiver who reformed the constitution of Sparta, 7th cent. B.c.(?). 51. Epialte seems to be an invented name. 67-68. "groves of the Academy": The Academy was the garden near Athens in which Plato taught (ca. 387 B.c.), and in which his followers continued to meet for nine centuries. 75. "worm": Byron often uses this term; see, for example, "Manfred," line 125. 105-9. Illysus (or Illysos ): the stream that emanates from Mount Hyrnettus, in central Greece. Brow of Diana: the moon (Diana, or Artemis, Apollo's twin, is the goddess associated with it). 116. Orpheus: mythical poet and supreme musician, from Thrace. 130 ff. Race of Pelops: in Greek myth, Pelops was the son of Tantalus. The Peloponnesus (the peninsular region of continental Greece) is named for him, and tragedies about his descendants, who were cursed because Pelops failed to pay a bet, are among the most famous in Greek literature. His sons are Atreus and Thystes (who added a further curse to his brother's house). Atreus is the father of Agamemnon and Menelaus, also called

Notes to Pages 331-43

443

Atreides (sons of Atreus). Menelaus married Helen. Agamemnon married her half-sister, Clytemnestra; their children are Orestes, Iphigenia, and Electra. 153-55. Satyrs: lesser deities of Greek mythology, goat-eared and lustful. Fauns: playful deities, half-man, half-goat, not so sexual as satyrs. Dryads: tree nymphs. Oreads: mountain nymphs. 156. Epidaurus: city in the Peloponnesus; also cited in the dictee "The Fall of the Leaves" (line 13). 168 (166). Fury: Greek goddess of vengeance, almost always used in the plural, since there are three; euphemistically called the Eumenides, literally the "well-minded ones." 194 (193). Argos: Greece. 200 ff. Triumphal chariot: the allusion to the chariot, the cries of woe, and the later curse that uses animal imagery probably come from Aeschylus' Agamemnon (see Comments, n. 12). Cassandra, a daughter of Priam and Hecuba, rulers of Troy, was given the gift of prophecy by Apollo, who fell in love with her; when she rejected his love, he additionally decreed that her prophecies would never be believed. 202. Sais: a city of ancient Egypt. Schiller wrote a poem, "The Veiled Image at Sais," about "a young man who, in search of the Truth, lifts the veil from a giant statue in an Egyptian temple, and is struck dead" (Villene, 749 n). A translation of the poem by Bulwer-Lytton appeared in Blackwood's in October 1842, the month before their aunt's death brought the Brontt!s home. In Villene Lucy calls this goddess a "Titaness amongst dieties" (39.674). 207-11 (207-10). CB's description of Cassandra recalls one of Zenobia Ellrington in "The Bridal," a story of 1832 (CBEW1:343; quoted in the Introduction, p. xxxvii). 221. Ajax: not the son of Telamon, but of Oileus, also known as Little or Lesser Ajax (Iliad). During the sack of Troy, Cassandra fted to the temple of Athena, where he found her and dragged her off. Agamemnon saved her by declaring that Ajax had impiously raped her in the temple and taken her as his own prize. The Aeneid and the Odyssey are sources for this myth. 228. "axe that fells the oak will break the reed": possibly a reference to the La Fontaine fable, "Le Chene et le roseau"; see the textual note to lines 146 ff of devoir 25. 264. Alfred de Musset: French poet and dramatist, 181~57. EDITORIAL NOTES (ORIGINAL)

Throughout the text, CB transcribes names in her proper-noun print. Names so treated (with line numbers) include: Pelopon~se (4), Athenes (7, 241), Achille (12), Ulysse (12), Lysandre (18, 25, 33, 40, 49, 60, 63, 77, 99, 242), Samos (25, 245), Chios (25), Lycurge (31), Lacedemone (33), EpialteJEpialte {51, 54, 89), Platon (68), Socrate (68), Sophocle (69), Euripide (69), Le Sac d'Athenes {81-82), Hymette (105), Parthenon (106), Illise (108, 246), Diane (109, 247), Lares (114), Orphee (116), Egee (122), Grece {129), Pelopides (130), Clytemnestre (132,196, 229), Oreste (133,

444

Notes to Pages 334-51

184), Electre (133, 166,168,193, 249), Argos (146, 193,205, 217), Satyres (153), Faunes (154), Dryades (155), Or~ades (155), Epidaure (156), Troie (172), Iphig~nie (173, 184), H~l~ne (177), Paris (177), M~n~laus (178), Agamemnon (199, 202,229, 249), Sais (202), Cassandre (205, 224, 229), Apollon (214), Ajax (221), Atride (221), Egisthe (229), Athenes sauv~e par Ia Poesie (256). 2-3. Athenes in CB's normal devoir hand, enlarged; smaller subtitle. 5. The comment p.f. (pas fram;ais?) below exultation. 6. H uses three slashes to strike out ending of permettait; his circumflex on goater. 8. Below H's inserted on is an indecipherable notation. 14. H's marginal comment is perpendicular and applies to the entire section. 15. The verb apprlter means "to prepare," as a dress, a hide, or a meal; the noun applies to the finishing of the first two, but not to the third, which is why H underlines it. 19. In the space betweenporand tions CB seems to have started writingi. 22. H's affames below CB's line. 31. H's accent on s'echauffant. 34. H's comma. 46. H's accents on entiere and Athenes. (CB's dot on the i of entiere slants to accent thee, but H adds an accent anyway.) SO. Illegible abbreviation after d. - in margin. 51-52. H objects to the repetition of pris prisonnier. 55. CB's strikeout of the s of leurs; H inserts three lines under buverent. 56. H's t hooks around and deletes last three letters of etaient. 57. CB's crossout of ca; H's second line under accueilla snakes down. 60E. Sign added to show the effect in English of H's correction: "draperies in scarlet" to "scarlet draperies." 75. The word ver w.u.? The comment obf" is within the text, below and to the right of mauvais choix. 82. H begins something illegible in margin. 83-84. CB's closing quotation mark is over dash; she then writes allez with another closing mark, suggesting that it was an afterthought. 85. H's circumflex on chatnes. 88. Three lines under est. 90. Four lines under d of pretend. 95. Three lines under fixa. 101. H's couper is above CB's casser, which he strikes out. 121. H's accent, changing arrangeaint to s'arrangerent. 124. The letters us > e in llisse and run below line. 136. H's tB diagonal to text. 140. H's tr. B. diagonal, extending past line 141. 141. CB's E >here in Elle. 150. CB's crossout of nt in existent. 154. CB's crossout of finals in epaisses. 168. H begins and strikes out something before lugubre. 182. H starts to write something over deprime; his caret extends into CB's line. 191. CB's son peuple >sa patrie, almost hiding it. 193. H's caret for pauvre extends into CB's line. 196. H starts to write something above du palais, cancels it. 236. The word accablante w.u.?

Notes to Pages 335-51

445

EDITORIAL NOTES (REVISION)

In the text revised in December, CB makes a number of small changes, some in response to Heger's comments, but many more to alter punctuation. I have not reproduced that draft because the changes are rarely substantive. Instead I list the variants below, keying the line numbers to the numbers in the printed draft. All corrections are hers unless otherwise noted; those that Heger instigated are marked "[H]." Wherever "H again ... " appears, she has not made the correction he suggested. The proper nouns formerly in special lettering are in her regular devoir hand. 1. CB omits her name. In its place is Devoir de Style pour M: Heger. The date is the same but not underlined. 5. The word du > de [H]; after crise, the line reads du triomphe: le generallacedemonien; et d'exultation is deleted. 6. Comma deleted; permit> permettait [H]; circumflex on gouter [H]. 7. The word chute missing circumflex. 8. The word austeres deleted; en replaces dans [H]. 9. Hyphen omitted from lui-meme. 10. Lysandre, precedessemblait [H]. 11. The wordsous replaces dans [H]; it is w.u. [H]; comma after tente; circumflex on il{Jtes; grossier replaces rude. 12. Comma after abondant; accent omitted from prepara; CB begins and deletes Uly before Achille. 13. Semicolon after compagnons; quand . .. inaccessibles deleted [H]. 14. The word un I.e.; comma deleted after boeuf; tttt and s of des deleted [H]: d'un boeufet de gros pains. 15. CB does not change apprets; festin w.u. [H]; comma replaces semicolon after it. 16. Commas deleted before and after ou plut{Jt couches. 17. The word objets replaces objet. 18. The word empruntes replaces emprunte. 19. Bin margin [H];portions is unchanged and w.u. [H]. 20. The word passa replaces passait [H], with final a underlined [H]. 21. Comma after guerre deleted. 22. H again adds affames after loups; lacedemonien added after general. 23. Accents omitted from 6terent and regal. 24. Comma deleted after pain. 25. Chio replaces Chios [H]. 27. Semicolon deleted after capitaines; Chacun captitalized; semicolon after silence; bient6t I.e. 28. Semicolon after changement. 29. The word deplierent spelled correctly [H]. 30. H again adds enfin with caret after parlerent. 31. Lycurgue replaces Lycurge [H]; H again adds comme on, preceded by comma that CB has omitted; s'echauffait replaces s'echauffant [H]. 33. Period after Lacedemone; comma after mais. 34. Comma after autres [H]; hyphen omitted from lui-meme. 36. Comma before d'apres [H]. 37. Comma after egoistes [H]; mechant plaisir replaces plaisir mechant. 39. The word gaiete has two accents; devenaitreplaces devint [H], with ending w.u. [H]. 40. The word calcutee replaces forcee [H]; lui replaces le [H]. 41. First accent deleted from relacher; son empire absolu remains and is w.u. [H]; hyphen omitted from lui-meme.

446

Notes to Pages 335-37

43. Comma added after vaincus. 44. Comma after politique deleted; feignait underlined [H] because CB has not added avait. 46. The word jurerent replaces avaient jure [H]. 47. The wordfirent replaces avaient fait; bdtiments is above the line, replacing crossed-outfondements; comma replaces semicolon after it; comma after habitants deleted. 48. The word labourer replaces dechirer [H]. 49. Colon deleted. 50. Exclamation point replaces comma after Lacedemone; par replaces a[H]. 51. Epialte"! s'ecriat-il aun il6te: "Va replaces Epialte!" dit il aun ilote "va. 51-52. H again underlines the unchanged pris prisonnier. 52. Accent added to resiste. 52-3. Parentheses deleted by CB restored [H]. 53. Circumflex added to chatnes; dash replaces comma after lyre. 54. New paragraph begins with Epialte. 55. The word leur no longer has canceled s; burent replaces buverent [H]; no new paragraph after gloire. 56. Les orgies etaient becomes singular [H]; son replaces leur [H]. 57. Comma after rentra; semicolon replaces comma after poete; l'accueillit replaces l'accueilla [H]. 59. The word de replaces des before lampes. 60. The word ecarlates replaces en ecarlate [H]; semicolon deleted; closing quotation mark omitted after done; added [H]; her exclamation point follows it; q of qu' u.c. 61. Comma added after hibou; CB deletes qui s'est; restored above line [H]; CB omits period, adds closing quotation. 63. Dash deleted. 64. CB changes de l'ilote to des il6tes; corrected to de l'il6te [H]; ones deleted from froisse. 65. The word attendit replaces attendait [H]. 66. Comma added after tranquillement; new paragraph after dire; comma added after Athenien. 68. The word poesie replaces poiisie. 69. Malgre changed to Malgre [H]. 70. Comma after nobles deleted. 71. Comma added after classiques; un deleted. 73. Commas added after Cependant and moment; comma deleted after Spartiates. 74. Comma deleted after Samos; ne s'apercevaient replaces n'apercevaient [H]. 75. The word chien replaces ver [H]. 77. Opening quotation mark omitted; closing quotation mark precedes exclamationpoint. 78. Dash deleted. 80. Commas added after chanter and metier; puisqu'aux replaces puisque aux. 81. Comma added after un. 81-82. Title in special lettering. 82. Demain capitalized; CB does not add H's Suppose que. 83. Comma deleted after et; Troiii replaces Troie. 84. Exclamation point after allez. 85-86. Entire sentence (Le poete . .. pierreries-) deleted; paragraph begins Je ne sais....

Notes to Pages 337-39

447

87. The phrase dit /e poete replaces dit-il; period omitted. 88. Comma replaces semicolon after modeste. 89. Colon replaces comma after fouet; period after Epialte omitted.

90. No accent on presenta; semicolon replaces dash after lyre; s [H] and accent added to pretends. 91. Colon replaces comma after obeisse; closing quotation mark omitted after esc/ave! 92. Exclamation point replaces question mark after esc/ave. 93. Period added after Lysandre. 95. The word fixa remains as it was; Lacedemonien I.e.; bru/a le feu replaces bru/ait Ia flamme. 96. Comma added after pure. 97-98. No paragraph; after feroce, sentence continues: j'ai des chaines, tu as des dents, tigre dechire moil [H]. 101. Semicolon replaces dash; commas deleted after lance and poete; couper replaces casser [H]. 102. The phrase cordon qui teneait /e replaces cordon servant aattacher un. 103. Accents omitted from revela; period added after scene. 104. CB omits accent on etoiles; added [H]. 105. Dash replaces semicolon after tune; comma added after Hymette. 105-6. The phrase portant Athenes comme une couronne replaces couronne de Ia ville d'Athenes [H]; comma after Parthenon. 107. Comma added after /unaires. 108.11/isus replaces //lise [H]; repetaient replaces repetaient. 109. H again underlines classique; comma after it deleted. 112. The phrase offraient un contraste frappant avec cet replaces donnaient le revers de cet, which H underlined; comma added after calme. 113. Dash deleted after dehors. 114. Comma added after ville. 116. Colon replaces semicolon after terre. 117. The words par /es replace des (H]. 118. The word dans added before Ia musique and comma after. 121. The word arrangerent replaces arrangeaient [H]; devint replaces devinrent. 122. Comma added after arrita. 124./1/isus replaces 1/isse [H]. 127. Comma replaces semicolon after baissee. 130. Accent omitted from Pilopides; comma after it. 131. The word apres replaces de [H]. 132. Comma added after lointain; dans ses foyers deshonores replaces sur son foyer deshonore [H]; comma follows. 134. The word et replaces dash [H]. 140. The word pensif deleted. 142. Comma deleted after etoiles; no space between tandis que. 150. Comma deleted after homme. 153. Comma added after arb res; comma deleted after et; accent omitted on ou; added[H]. 154. The word epaisse singular. 158. Comma added after humaines. 159. Period replaces colon after par/e. 160. Closing quotation mark omitted. 161. The word gemit replaces retentit [H].

448

Notes to Pages 339-45

162. Dash after Agamemnon and comma after tombeau deleted. 163. The word contient replaces renferme; comma replaces dash after cendres. 164. Comma added after tyrans. 166. Semicolon after suit [H). 167-68. The phrase sert d'accompagnement lugubre areplaces fait le refrain de [H).

170. Period omitted after souvenirs. 172. Comma replaces semicolon after Troie; cette deleted. 174. CB deletes comma and cette fontaine so the line reads pres d'une fontaine dans Iacour. 180. Instead of casque; i~ the text reads casque. II. 181. Comma after bras deleted; appuyai replaces appuya [H). 182. The words de larmes added after gros (H had suggested d~prim~). 183. Comma added after aim~e; car deleted and moi added between commas after avais [H). 186. Accent omitted from d~part, comma added after. 189. The word fanaux replaces fanal [H). 192. The word roi written and crossed out before souverain. 193. CB does not add H's pauvre. 195. Accent added to d~borda. 197. Circumflex added to p8./e. 200. Comma added after femme. 206. Exclamation point replaces comma after encore. 210. CB writes sous and deletes it, replacing it with atravers; semicolon replaces colon; exclamation point replaces dash. 219. No new paragraph. 220. CB starts to write ~coutez, crosses out z. 225. Comma replaces semicolon after destin. 227. Comma added after tout; no punctuation after mien. 228. The word brisera written and crossed out before chene; abattra written above it. 230. Instead of respirer, i~ the text reads respirer. II. 231. The word avait replaces avaient. 232. Circumflex moved to o in il6tes; comma after. 234. No accent on pr~sent. 236. Period added after accablante; first 6 u.c.; son capitalized. 240. Comma deleted after luim8me; pour replaces de before quitter. 241. No period after suret~. 243. Comma deleted after demanda. 244. Comma deleted after instances; semicolon replaces comma after fratche; comma added after puis. 244-45. The phrase d'un fort mal de replaces d'avoir tres fort mal aIa. 245. Comma added after ensuite. 246.//issus replaces 1/isse. 247. Comma added after revenant. 248. Comma added after AtMniens. 249. CB added de Clytemnestre, after d'E/ectre,. 250. The word lui added after ~ela; comma added after venait. 252. No paragraph; accent added to ~chappa. 254. Commas added before and after mais aussL 254-55. H again underlines en opiate assez forte; dash added after it.

Notes to Pages 345-51

449

255. Finals added to mot. 256. Title centered on two added lines: Athenes sauvee par Ia I Poesie. COMMENTS

1. A list of all the variants in the second version appears above, 44650. 2. Villette, 35.58~1. 3. The Life of Lysander, in Plutarch 4:273. See also Duthie, Foreign Vision, 50. 4. See, for example, devoirs 21 and 22. 5. "De Ia vie et des ouvrages de Callinus et de Tyrtee," introductory essay in Delavigne, xxxiv. 6. Gaskell, 11.238. 7. J. Lempriere, Bibliotheca Classica; or, A Classical Dictionary, Containing a Full Account ofAll the Proper Names Mentioned in Ancient Authors (London, 1797), is still at the BPM; the children scribbled in it. See EW, 295 n. 36. 8. CB Poems, 64-69. As Barker says, "Her stories and poems ... are peppered with casual references to Scipio Africanus, Socrates, Ovid, Virgil's Eclogues and Herodotus and it is clear from their context that she knew more about them than simply their brief entries in her father's Lempriere's Bibliotheca Classica" (166). 9. On Lady Zenobia, see CBEW 1:286 n. 2 and 301 n. 5. 10. For instance, at the end of "Mazeppa," a tale teller discovers that his audience (the king) has. been asleep for an hour. 11. Villette, 30.511. 12. Of the two most famous sources for Cassandra, Aeschylus' Agamemnon and Euripedes' Trojan Women, the first seems far more likely to have been CB's prototype. In the Agamemnon, the chariot and references to animals are prominent features; in the Trojan Women, the prophesies do not match up, and Cassandra speaks about becoming Agamemnon's mistress and murderer. 13. It comes from The Iliad, book 20, though only Chapman renders it this way. According to the BST editor's note, "The Greek epithet is hard to translate with an exact brief equivalent. The word means that those hands are not to be fastened or touched, because they are irresistible. 'Inaccessible' does not convey the right meaning to the general reader. 'Invincible' is nearer the mark if a one-word translation is insisted on. CB must have realized the strangeness of the Homeric epithet she used, but depended on an acclaimed authority" ("Four Essays," 90). 14. Gerin CB, 195. 15. "Poems and Ballads of Schiller. No. II," Blackwood's 52 (October 1842): 448-49. See also the Textual Note to line 202 and Introduction, lxviii. 16. Villette, 35.581. 17. Ibid.

450

Notes to Pages 351-55

18. Ibid., 35.579. 19. Ibid. 20. Duthie, Foreign Vision, 54. 21. Both versions come from the collection of Henry H. Bonnell, who purchased them at auctions of Nicholls's manuscripts in 1914 and 1916. Nicholls owned the devoirs by inheritance from CB; they did not come to him from Belgium.

28. Letter from a Poor Painter to a Great Lord I Lettre d'un pauvre Peintre aun grand Seigneur (CB) TEXTUAL NOTES

At fourteen CB wrote "The Swiss Artist," a two-part serial for her Blackwood's Young Men's Magazine. Alexandre de Valence, its nine-yearold protagonist, is discovered in his humble alpine hut by the comte de Lausanne, who becomes his patron and takes him to Paris and Italy. Ten years later, "wealthy and far-famed," Alexandre returns to his "venerable parents." He has undergone no hardships but he has improved his genius by examining "in detail" the work of famous masters. The links between the devoir and the serial seem tenuous, but see CB EW 1:92-94 and 115-17. 60 (63). Nebuchadnezzar's furnace: Nebuchadnezzar II (605-562 B.C.) was the king of Babylon who destroyed Jerusalem and began the Babylonian captivity of the Jews (which CB refers to in "The Death of Moses," lines 154-55). He cast Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego into his fiery furnace because they refused to worship his golden idol, but their God kept them safe within the flames (Daniel3). 87-89 (90-93). In EB's "Plead for Me" (dated 1844 in manuscript), the speaker refers to the "God of visions" as "My slave, my comrade, and my king" and then explains each term (EB Poems, 22-23). I am grateful to Janet Gezari for this reference. 117-18 (123). Titian, Raphael, and Michelangelo are all included in the list that CB wrote at thirteen "of painters whose works I wish to see" (Gaskell5.117-18). 130 (135). "laurels on a grave" and other details of this section may anticipate a poem that CB wrote three years later, "I gave, at first, Attention close." The speaker, Jane, wins the prize in a school competition, a laurel wreath bestowed by her master. Nonetheless, she says, "The hour of triumph was to me I The hour of sorrow sore; I A day hence I must cross the sea, I Ne'er to recross it more" (CB Poems, 335-36). EDITORIAL NOTES

Several words have slightly wavy underlining. 2-4. Lettre in CB 's double-line print; subtitle in smaller print; H's period and slash after Seigneur. 6. The word cette > something (ce 1?). 10. H's commas after autre and ites.

Notes to Pages 355-67

451

15. H's line indicates the need for a comma, which he adds. 28. H's commas before and after Milord. 29. Rome in CB's proper-noun print. 54. H's mark in the left margin is indecipherable. 63. Nebuchadnezzar in CB 's proper-noun print. 66. H's comma after autres. 84. Large space between secret. and Enfin. 110. H writes something illegible-perhaps ai-